Frustrating! Random Notes
Reminds me of an old Rolling Stone ad campaign: Perception v. Reality.
That campaign wanted to convince the advertising community that all readers of the iconic music magazine weren’t necessarily stoned 24/7. Reality, of course, didn’t necessarily track with perception… and, I might add, vice versa.
Cable operators providing broadband service find themselves in the same boat today.
Comcast and its ilk might be right… are, in fact, quite right… but… well… so what? Does that even matter? If you look at the blogosphere, you’d think that Comcast was the evil empire. And maybe they are?
Which raises the burning question: did all of those hard-working, waiting-line-holding Comcast employees sleeping through the Federal Confusion Commission hearing at Harvard Law School get paid overtime?
How did Comcast execs wake them up to applaud at the right time? Is there a technology we don’t know about? Comcast is taking a beating.
On the merits, this is clearly undeserved. On the margin, they’ve been asking for it. All because Kevin Martin (et) is marginally more photogenic than David Cohen? No. But because they thought they could argue past the confrontations.
They really didn’t take it seriously! Net neutrality. Nice idea. Impractical. Well… no. Instead, it has become a rallying cry.
Cable operators—particularly Comcast—sell video. So, naturally, cable operators will do all they can to impede competition.
(Never mind all that competition that actually exists out there. Never mind that it is cable’s pipes that carry all that data, and who wants to throttle the service that saved the business?)
Which leads to grandstanding politicians. (Which attorney general will be next to follow Andrew Cuomo‘s lead? Easy… which other state has so few Comcast broadband subscribers?)
This political silly season is going to make this a campaign issue yet.
* Spring Fling! Have a wonderful, successful New York week! May Cable stay Positive… may the Wonder Women bask… and may every meeting be productive. (I’ve gone skiing. For a cause. I’m practicing my silent auction bidding for Ski-TAM!)
* The CIO: Don’t miss this: http://www.cable360.net/cablefaxmag/operators/msos/25049.html. www.cable360.net/cablefaxmag/operators/msos/25049.html.(And check out www.cable360.net often.) This bit in particular is worth a detailed look.www.cable360.net Mike Grebb talked with a passel of chief information officers, and his discussion with them highlighted something critical to everyone in this business: running these businesses is complicated… and getting more so every day. Next week in Austin, I’ll be talking with some CIOs at the Argo conference. Integrating all of the “opportunities” ain’t getting simpler.
* A Billion Cell Phones Sold: This is the major contribution to the decline in usage of turn signals by distracted drivers—if not the major reason for the decline of civilization! Ban the handheld versions from use while driving! Gotta give some kudos to Microsoft (and Ford) for the “Sync” voice activated service in some new cars… but that really needs to be further developed so that drivers on cell phones, drinking lattes or texting messages can activate the turn signals with voice commands. Right after passing the 2nd car tilted onto its side along I-70 just east of the Continental Divide during one of our regular snow storms, I counted 6 SUV drivers in a row on their cell phones.
