Benton RSS Feed

Just in time for another debate on whether the Consumer Electronics Show is going the way of the floppy disk, tech consulting firm Accenture has released a report on consumer demand for a range of devices, and the outlook isn’t all good.

Techies predictably love their smartphones, tablets, computers and HDTVs, those multitasking devices that can screen the latest episode of Downton Abbey and tell you the weather. But demand for cameras, music players, DVD players and other single-use products has plummeted, according to the report. In 2012, for instance, nearly a third fewer people owned DVD players than did a mere three years before. That won’t surprise anyone with a smartphone and limited purse or briefcase space. But the forced evolution of single-use devices might.

So far this season, ratings for the big broadcast networks have been down, continuing an ongoing pattern of audience erosion. But it's different this time. With use of digital video recorders hitting a critical mass and more people accessing content online and via video-on-demand on a variety of devices, network executives have become like petulant Little Leaguers, striking out and then blaming the umpires because they can't get a hit. In a steady drumbeat designed to ward off the mojo of a lethargic scatter market and expectations of doldrums after 2012's Olympics and elections, media company honchos are chanting a new mantra: People are watching their programs, but they're not all being counted, because of when, where or on what device they're watching.

After turning on an Internet service provider (ISP)-level ad blocking option by default—and after meeting Jan 7 with French government officials—France’s second-largest ISP decided to temporarily suspend its controversial move for “two to three weeks” until it’s able to reach a revenue agreement with Google.

Last week, Free quietly released a new update to its router (known as a Freebox) firmware, which installed an ad blocking feature. While many users use ad blocking on their own browsers or computers, this marked the first time any major ISP, anywhere, installed ad blocking at the ISP level. The move was quickly dubbed “AdGate” by the French media, and it appears to have stemmed from a revenue dispute between Free and Google. In France, like in many places, ISPs have been getting upset with the search giant driving large amounts of traffic (most notably, YouTube) over their networks.

Sony and BMG, onetime partners in one of the music world’s biggest mergers, are teaming up again on a bid to buy — and then divide between themselves — some of the recorded music assets of EMI, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks between the companies. The EMI assets are being sold by the Universal Music Group, which last year took the company over for $1.9 billion but is being required by the European Union to dispose of about a third of it to preserve competition. The EMI labels up for sale include Parlophone, with acts like Coldplay and the Gorillaz, along with EMI’s extensive classical catalog and other labels and subsidiaries across Europe. Universal is said to be seeking at least $650 million for the divestments, according to these people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private. Sony and BMG — which merged in 2004, then split up four years later when Sony bought out BMG’s share — have agreed to submit a bid together in the EMI auction, but the two companies will not be forming another joint venture. Instead, if they are successful, EMI’s divested assets would be split up even further, with Sony taking some and BMG taking others.