Benton RSS Feed
Get set for some disruption in the pay TV market in 2013.
The proportion of customers who change service is set to double over the next year, research says. Most of those who plan to change say they will simply remove paid channels from their existing package. Channel additions by consumers look set to shrink markedly next year. And the numbers who plan to switch down to Freeview terrestrial TV are rising. In all, this likely points to a consumer response to worsening economic times, with disposable income relative to many consumer goods shrinking, rather than the effect of new internet TV services.
Research: Pay TV customers will cut existing bills before cutting cords
Hachette’s new contracts with e-book retailers following the publisher’s September settlement with the Department of Justice are now in place. Amazon had begun discounting some Hachette e-books slightly; now, the discounts are larger, and Google and Barnes & Noble are discounting as well. Apple is not discounting the e-books yet.
Hachette enters into new e-book contracts with retailers post-DoJ settlement
Amazon’s new unlimited digital offering for kids, Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, is a very ambitious program.
For a set monthly price, families get unlimited access to e-books, movies, TV shows, educational apps and games aimed at 3-to-8-year-olds. Kindle FreeTime Unlimited works only on the newest Kindle Fires as an extension to Kindle FreeTime, the parental controls feature that lets parents set time limits on kids’ various uses of the tablet. Households that subscribe to Amazon Prime will pay $2.99 per child or $6.99 per family (up to six kids) per month; non-Prime members will pay $4.99 per child or $9.99 per family per month. Content is “pre-screened for age-appropriateness.” Unlike the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which lets Kindle-owning Prime members borrow one free e-book per month from a collection of largely self-published titles, the content partners here are brands that kids will actually recognize: Sesame Street, Disney, Nickelodeon, PBS. That means characters like Dora, Elmo, Thomas and Cinderella — the good stuff.
Amazon’s all-you-can-eat kids’ Kindle content should scare competitors
With the recent Internet blackout in Syria, the prospect of a similar event happening in the U.S. became a subject of discussion in the tech community. While the Internet is typically viewed as being highly resilient to war, natural disasters and everything else, a country suddenly disconnecting, as Syria did, presented a captivating scenario to consider for world leaders meeting at the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai to update international telecommunications agreements.
A recent story by the Huffington Post illustrated how such a blackout occurring in the U.S. is highly unlikely, despite several efforts over the past few years by Sen. Joseph Lieberman to create an Internet “kill-switch” that would give the federal government power to shut down or take control of American Internet access during a national emergency. The bill never passed, and with more than 40 Internet providers in the U.S., it would be extremely difficult for any one event to completely shut off American Internet access -- although the potential for a partial Internet blackout in the U.S. is possible.
Internet Blackout in the U.S. Not Likely
More consumers than ever are switching the companies they buy products or services from (particularly if those products or services are wireless phone, Internet or retailing industries), but they aren’t necessarily happy about it.
According to Accenture’s eighth annual Global Consumer Survey, one out of every five people (20%) switched the companies they typically buy from, an increase of 5% over 2011. However, 85% of those people said the companies could have done something differently to prevent them from switching. According to the survey (which polled 12,000 people in 32 countries), among those who said they would have stayed if the provider had acted differently, two-thirds (67%) said having an issue resolved during their first customer-service contact would have changed their minds. More than half (54%) said they might have had a change of heart if they had been better rewarded for remaining loyal.
More Consumers Churning, But They'd Rather Stay
The mobile phone reviews site PhoneDog, which accused a former staffer of stealing its 17,000 Twitter followers and sought compensation of $2.50 per follower, has apparently settled its lawsuit. That means the world will have to wait a while longer to learn how much the court thinks a Twitter follower is worth.
One quick and easy response, of course, is that your number of followers is worth little or nothing. If you’re tweeting something compelling, people will find it -- perhaps through retweets. If you’re not, well then your followers wouldn’t care anyway. This is probably true in the long term. But in the short term -- where most businesses operate -- more followers means marginally more people will have their eyes on your coupon or your quip or your news story. And that can translate into revenue. And this is taking into account the chaotic nature of information sharing on Twitter where the people you follow and the people whose posts you see is rarely a one-to-one relationship.
What’s a Twitter Follower Worth?
The Obama Administration has established an official White House presence on Drupal.org, an online community dedicated to maintaining and improving Drupal, the software that powers WhiteHouse.gov.
We've released the source code for several Drupal modules in the past and we're now working with members of the Drupal community who are helping us improve We the People, the White House petitions system. In the coming months, we hope to release a new, "white label" theme for We the People that will make it easier for others to re-use the code and set up their own petitions systems. Whether you're on Drupal.org or GitHub, interested in We the People or our mobile apps, if you're a developer we want to work with you. Visit the White House on Drupal.org or stop by the White House GitHub profile. You can also stop by our /Developers page to see a complete rundown of our open source projects and keep in touch on Twitter by tweeting @WHWeb.
Open Source and the Power of Community
Product placement has become an increasingly popular way for brands to increase awareness, preference, and loyalty. But it can be done so badly it sets your teeth on edge (and we've got proof). Here's how to do it right.
The Most Egregiously Bad Product Placement You'll Ever See--And How To Do It Right
“Scammers may see cellphones as the new frontier for fraud,” said David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board in Illinois.
“Cramming” is the practice of placing unauthorized third-party charges on cell phone bills and it is a problem that’s increasing in Illinois. With cramming, the charges are small — typically between $1.99 and $9.99 — but they add up to an estimated $1.4 million being scammed from Illinois consumers, according to an investigation by CUB and Validas, a wireless industry research firm. Nationally, the total cost to cellphone users may exceed $59 million, the investigation found. The scammers rely on consumers not checking their long and complicated cellphone bills, and not noticing a slight increase in cost. Only about 1 in 20 customers who have been crammed catch the cost, Kolata said. Cellphone users can block third-party use of their phones, but this often comes as an additional charge from the cellphone service provider. That charge may be more than the cost of the cram.
Cellphone ‘crammers’ pile on charges
Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) introduced legislation that aims to support mobile health and health technology innovation and adoption in part by requiring the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to establish an office of wireless health technology.
Rep Honda, who represents Silicon Valley, introduced the Healthcare Innovation and Marketplace Technologies Act. There is "a lack of an established marketplace for new technologies and a lack of trained workers to handle the implementation and use of these technologies," Honda said in a news release. "This bill begins to bridge these gaps." The bill would establish a mobile health, or mHealth, developer support program at HHS and create prize and grant programs to encourage development of new health information technology. Certified electronic health-record technologies are excluded from the programs. In addition, the legislation would develop a low-interest small-business loan program for clinics and physician practices to encourage purchases of new health IT technologies and services, including EHRs, as well as a grant program to support providers as they retrain employees for new health IT-related positions.
Rep Honda aims to spur mobile health innovation