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NO BUNDLE OF JOY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Yuki Noguchi]
Big telecom and cable TV companies say "bundles" of service are the way of the future, and the concept is driving huge corporate mergers that are remaking the consumer marketplace. But customers have been slow to pick up on the notion, and those who have sometimes find that the reality has yet to match the vision. "The assumption that everybody wants a bundle is flawed," said Maribel Lopez, an analyst with Forrester Research. Surveys show that only 5 percent of subscribers buy bundled services, and only about quarter of consumers are interested in buying all their services from a single provider, she said. Some buyers remember the days of being in the driver's seat as they played long-distance providers off one another for better deals, and they are reluctant to put all their subscriptions in the hands of a single company in an industry whose customer service is notoriously inconsistent. The more services added to the bundle, the fewer people it appeals to, Lopez said. Customers who buy bundles usually buy only two or three services at once, primarily to get a discount on the total bill. Over time, cable and telephone operators say the bigger selling point will come from tying the services together in innovative ways -- making it possible, for example, to record and view television programming on a cellphone. From the companies' standpoint, the more customers buy in bundles, the less likely they are to switch providers. That's why phone companies such as Verizon Communications Inc. are spending billions of dollars on fiber-optic lines to deliver Internet and television services -- so they can lure subscribers from cable providers and wrap them up with full-service packages. The pending merger of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. is also partly about trying to speed the rollout of Internet-based TV. And consumers are beginning to cross boundaries in search of better deals. Five million households get phone service from their cable provider, and 1.5 million customers get satellite television on the same bill as Internet and phone, according to Bruce Leichtman, head of Leichtman Research Group.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR200603...
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MICHIGAN BROADCASTERS BACK STATEWIDE FRANCHISE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Michigan Association of Broadcasters (MAB) has come out in support of bills in the Michigan House and Senate that would create a telco-friendly statewide video franchise. A couple of broadcaster-friendly provisions in one bill include a requirement that a statewide franchise holder not "degrade" the broadcast signal it carries and one that says both TV and radio stations can request carriage (must carry), or try to negotiate retransmission-consent agreements that compensate them for carriage.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6317642?display=Breaking+News

REGULATING LIKE IT'S 1969
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] Networks and their distribution partners in cable and satellite, prodded by the Internet and devices such as TiVo and Slingbox, are slowly ceding control to viewers and making it possible for them to watch shows when and where they want. Nevertheless, the Federal Communications Commission, in regulating indecent content, acts as if over-the-air broadcasting reigns supreme. Granted, television has become increasingly coarse, graphic and titillating. As FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin notes, complaints about unsuitable programs have risen dramatically -- thanks in no small measure to organized e-mail campaigns by groups such as the Parents Television Council. But the FCC is ill-suited to the parental task of protecting impressionable minds from corrupting images. For starters, the commission's ever-shifting membership leads to a lack of clarity about what is and isn't permissible. It also levies fines capriciously. As programs move to new venues and time slots, much of it at viewers' control, it's irrational to think that the feds can shield children by cracking down on what local broadcasters show. The commission should stop trying to censor broadcast programming and focus instead on helping parents understand and use the tools available to police their television sets.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-fcc22mar22,1,2590...
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VIVENDI HOLDER MAY URGE UNWINDING OF MEDIA TITAN
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: ]
Sebastian Holdings Inc. has bought 2.5% of Vivendi Universal ($1.1 billion) and intends to push management to unwind the strategy that created the European media giant. Sebastian Holdings, which recently helped shareholders push in management changes at French advertising company Havas SA, intends to argue that Vivendi needs a clearer strategy and should either concentrate on creating media content or on distributing information. That position is at odds with the vision that turned Vivendi into a media conglomerate. Vivendi's former chief executive, Jean-Marie Messier, built up and joined together an entertainment business, including television shows, movies and music, and the means to deliver it to customers, including pay-TV and cellphone operations. One option being considered by Sebastian Holdings is to push for the sale of Vivendi's stakes in French phone company SFR and Morocco's Maroc Telecom. Another option is to press for the sale of the company's 20% stake in NBC Universal, the parent of the NBC television network. General Electric Co. owns the rest of the U.S. media giant.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114296284628904235.html?mod=todays_us_mo...
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