Free Republic

Conventional wisdom dictates that Hollywood could always shrug off economic downturns because worried consumers spend more on entertainment when times are tough. Not this time. Everywhere one looks, the entertainment business is in a world of hurt. The downturn is slamming the balance sheets and stocks of major media companies. Banks and hedge funds are cutting or eliminating movie financing, putting projects at studios and independents in peril. TV networks, reeling from an advertising decline, are slashing costs and trimming staffs. "Every single source of capital has suffered a seismic shock that we haven't seen in our lifetimes," said Nigel...

Will Shari and Sumner Redstone Split? (Cable Networks DeathWatch™) By Ronald Grover BW Exclusives Redstone's 80% stake gives him clout in any deal Shari offers Sean Gallup/Getty Images Shari may seek an equity infusion from private investors Phelan M. Ebenhack/National Amusements/AP Photo Story Tools As family feuds go, few have been more intractable than the one that has simmered between media mogul Sumner M. Redstone and his daughter, Shari. For two years the pair has battled over the direction of National Amusements, the family company that owns a national chain of movie theaters and controls the media giants CBS (CBS)...

By Heidi Dawley Nov 13, 2008 As in the U.S., so in Britain. As the weather turns cold, the economy here turns even colder, with yet more news of sinking revenues and cutbacks, and the cost is being felt directly by UK media. Just yesterday, it was reported that unemployment has reached an 11-year high, that Virgin Media, a major cable operator, was axing 2,200 jobs, that Yell, a yellow pages company, was chopping jobs as well, and that a string of regional newspapers was reporting a 15.5 percent falloff in ad revenue through the first 10 months of the...

A Hulu for Cable Networks? Not Any Time Soon How Free Online Video Threatens Pay-TV Model By Andrew Hampp BOSTON (AdAge.com) -- Now that Hulu is an out-of-the-box success story for broadcast TV, when will cable get its one-stop online video site? If two panels at the Cable Telecommunications Association of Marketing Summit in Boston on Tuesday are any indication, not any time soon. he prospect of major cable groups such as Viacom, Discovery and NBC Universal following the likes of NBC, Fox, ABC and CBS to streaming full-length episodes of current shows online has always seemed like a long...

For years, it's been one of those speculative staple questions of consumer-media research: If you could only keep one thing out of a list that included your phone, your TV or your computer and internet connection, what would it be? But with the recession looming, it's no longer such an academic question. Agencies, media, telecoms and other marketers are pondering the implications of an impending shakeout where, after years of piling on one subscription fee after another, consumers take a harder look at what they really need. Their decisions in what look to be lean years ahead could play a...

At almost exactly 10 PM Eastern, my Brighthouse cable went completely black. My dad, who lives on the other side of town, called and said that he's having the same problem. I've tried calling Brighthouse and their line is constantly busy, so it must be affecting a large number of people. My dad and I, of course, smell something fishy, especially since my Internet service, which is also provided by Brighthouse on the same cable, is working just fine.

I do believe that liberals in this country have their tin foils hats on way too tight these days. At least, it's easy to think that over the new national conspiracy theory that lefties are all balled up over lately. You see, it is being imagined in the dim, dark recesses of the left's collective consciousness that cable company Comcast is out to silence them. Apparently, Comcast has come down from their circling black helicopters and decided to target the left by moving MSNBC from their basic cable package to their more expensive premium services. This will, you see, "marginalize...

Dish Network today announced that it will add 17 national HDTV channels on August 1, saying the additions will give it 100 national HD channels overall. The satcaster promised in January that it would offer 100 national HD channels by year's end. DIRECTV, Dish's top satellite rival, now offers around 95 national HD channels, but has promised to deliver up to 150 national HD channels by year's end. “In January, we promised our customers that DISH Network would boost our national HD channel lineup to 100 by year’s end. Today, we are proud to say that in less than one...

Sisters protest high gas prices Mom had to cancel cable to pay for commute By Katie Drake The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 06/24/2008 12:31:32 AM MDT When a daily dose of Hannah Montana became impossible, the Vance sisters knew it was time to take to the streets. Sadie, 9, and her sister Pyper, 7, marched around downtown Salt Lake City chanting, "Lower the gas prices," while carrying homemade signs. The sisters decided to protest after losing their favorite cable TV shows when their mother, Michelle, had to sacrifice cable TV to pay for her daily commute.

I have one of those cable boxes for my Comcast cable TV (had to get it to be able to record on my DVD recorder). Now that they're moving to all-digital, they want people to get these boxes ($4/month) and are moving some channels to higher tiers which will require cable boxes (not sure if there will be a higher price for these channels). Channels ranging from MSNBC to TruTV (formerly Court TV) to Boston Catholic Television are affected. Anyway, now I'm getting periodic interruptions in service. Screen goes black, sound goes out--it still tells you what channel you're on...

NEW YORK (AP) — You're used to paying extra if you use up your cell phone minutes, but will you be willing to pay extra if your home computer goes over its Internet allowance? Time Warner Cable Inc. customers — and, later, others — may have to, if the company's test of metered Internet access is successful. On Thursday, new Time Warner Cable Internet subscribers in Beaumont, Texas, will have monthly allowances for the amount of data they upload and download. Those who go over will be charged $1 per gigabyte, a Time Warner Cable executive told the Associated Press....

WASHINGTON - The set-top box, a necessary appendage for millions of cable television customers for decades, is moving toward extinction. A leading television manufacturer, Sony Electronics Inc., and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said Tuesday they signed an agreement that will allow viewers to rid themselves of set-top boxes, yet still receive advanced "two-way" cable services, such as pay-per-view movies. In most cases, cable viewers also could dispose of another remote control since they could use their TV's control rather than one tied to the set-top box. The agreement marks a significant meeting of the minds between cable companies...

In the very real war on terror, a nosy squabble over “fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here” clouds a simple truth: namely, that “they” are here already. Indeed, Islamists are busy constructing a wing of jihad in America’s backyard. A potential audience of one million Arab-speaking cable subscribers of Time Warner in the greater New York area can feast on the Arabic Channel known as TAC to choose a menu that includes: A daily dose of Islamic jurisprudence from a sheik — most often Egyptian Amr Khaled, who wears a suit instead of a robe,...

Not long ago we reported that Monster Cable had issued a cease and desist letter to Blue Jeans Cable about their Tartan cables. Little did the lawyer drones over at Monster know that Kurt Denke, the president of Blue Jeans was, in a former life, a lawyer by trade. Oops! Someone pushed around the wrong "small" company! While we are no legal experts, we recognize humor when we see it. And this is funny. With Blue Jeans Cable's permission, we've included their full response to Monster's letter below. Kurt wants to keep this entire process completely open to the public...

WASHINGTON (AP) - For months, TV viewers have been told by government, by industry and by the media that if they already subscribe to cable, there's no need to worry about the coming transition to digital broadcasting. So cable customer Doris Spurk was surprised to learn that thanks to the transition, she would have to rent a converter box for $5.95 per month, per television set, plus pay for a $60 service call to install it. With five televisions in her home, the conversion would increase her bill by 75 percent. "It really ticks us off," the 63-year-old central Florida...

You'd think that in a slowing economy, companies would be trying to hold on to every potential customer. Not DirecTV. The satellite operator is weeding out customers, and it has no problem with fewer people signing up. In a conference call with analysts this week, CEO Chase Carey said the company has a new focus on "quality subscribers" (read: ones with money). It finds these subscribers by analyzing their income, age, home ownership, education and other metrics, Carey said in an earnings call with analysts. (Transcript here). DirecTV puts those customers into different categories to figure out who's valuable and...

MUMBAI, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Services on two of three broken undersea cables providing Internet services to parts of the Middle East and Asia have been restored after both cables were repaired, an Indian-owned cable operator said on Sunday. FLAG Telecom, a subsidiary of India's No. 2 mobile operator Reliance Communications (RLCM.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), said in a statement the breaks in its FLAG Europe-Asia (FEA) and FALCON cables had been repaired and services routed back through these cables. Web access in south Asia and parts of the Middle East was disrupted after breaks occurred in segments of two cables...

NEW DELHI: Internet users in India struggled with slow surfing speeds and companies tapped redundancy systems to overcome a disruption to international connectivity. The problem was caused due to the breakdown of two undersea cables in the Mediterranean. An anchoring ship off Egypt's Alexandria coast damaged Indian-owned FLAG cable and also SEA-ME-WE on Wednesday morning and urgent repair teams had set sail for the location. An official of Reliance group, which owns FLAG, said the repair will take about 10 days. But some mission-critical operations can sometimes suffer. Wednesday's disruption in SEA-ME-WE and Indian-owned FLAG cables had not been resolved...

Time Warner Cable Tests Data-Usage Rate StructureThursday, January 17, 2008 NEW YORK — Time Warner Cable will experiment with a new pricing structure for high-speed Internet access later this year, charging customers based on how much data they download, a company spokesman said Wednesday. The company, the second-largest cable provider in the United States, will start a trial in Beaumont, Texas, in which it will sell new Internet customers tiered levels of service based on how much data they download per month, rather than the usual fixed-price packages with unlimited downloads. Company spokesman Alex Dudley said the trial was aimed...

The U.S. government eagerly reached out to Venezuelan presidential candidate Hugo Chavez in 1998 and moved quickly to denounce a rumored coup plot against the man who's become one of the Bush administration's archenemies, newly declassified State Department documents obtained by McClatchy Newspapers reveal. State Department officials initially appeared dazzled by Chavez's oversized persona and his promise for sweeping reforms, and seemed sincere in their efforts to help him, the documents show. Some of those overtures drew positive responses from Chavez, who said he wanted U.S. help in fighting corruption and drug trafficking.... ...A Jan. 20, 1999, cable setting the...