MaxFAX

by Paul S. Maxwell Gee, ain’t the dish-heads worried? Seems the leverage might shift (again). Golly, gee. Love the "mainstream" (hey, if Rush and Al can rant about "the press" – so can I!) "business" press buying the spin of the latest whiner in coverage of the Adelphia deal (well, the latest and perhaps "final" one – but, there for the grace of Qwest and so on). "More Clout for Cable" was the headline on The Wall Street Journal story about satellite’s lamentations. The other Jeremiads are consumer groups … NOT consumers! Love how some organizations can, via little more than a name, "speak" for a class of Americans. All that is merely a sideshow. What this means for our cable industry is a little more complex. But, that includes: 1) Part IV of "Cable’s Swap Meet" has concluded; 2) Parts V and VI of "Cable’s Swap Meet" will begin momentarily; 3) Leverage has, in certain markets, swung back cable’s way; 4) Program exclusivity is on the map again (in two ways … Comcast, for example, has moved beyond the local news channel approach to local entertainment channels and, Comcast again, has moved to build a programming powerhouse to match Time Warner’s, NBC-Universal’s, Disney’s, News Corp’s and Viacom’s); 5) And that exclusivity won’t be one-sided … betcha News Corp continues, beyond Sunday Ticket and its (amazing) enhancements, with something else this fall; and, 6) Meanwhile, the telephone companies might think about going back to the drawing board(s). It’s increasingly clear that, in markets #1 to at least 50, market dominance is critical and will be more so the rest of this decade. Or, at least until every household in America has 10Gig speed. Random Notes: