I mentioned in a previous post that I had followed Apple’s Sept. 1 press conference. A more apt characterization of the event might be a meeting of the church of Apple fanatics.
Members of the press are supposed to be neutral and report the facts without endorsements. And I’m sure there were legitimate press at the Apple event. But also at this event were hundreds of members of the church of Apple. The audience’s clear unobjectivity was evident from the start. When Steve Jobs walked onto the stage, he was greeted by huge audience applause and cheers. The expressed enthusiasm continued with hurrahs, shouts and yells every time he mentioned some new product, feature, button or function. more…
I just spent an hour following the Apple press conference — rather a room of cheering hordes. I’ll get to this point later. My takeaway is that Jobs and others are out to eat broadcasters’ lunch, we just haven’t yet realized it. more…
There has been a raft of articles recently about viewers cutting the cord on their high-cost, multichannel pay TV services. It appears that the recession, anger at high prices and new options are encouraging television viewers to re-examine how they receive television programming. more…
If last Friday’s post didn’t get you to question your career selection, this one might. According to research by YouGov for Deloitte, almost 90 percent of TV viewers always fast-forward through advertisements. more…
Broadcast and television network executives may be left scratching their heads after the publication of two recent reports about televisions and viewers. The reports show that while the median age for American TV viewers is increasing, people have more TV sets in their homes than ever before. Before you try to get your head around those facts, add this one: Only 42 percent of Americans consider the television set a “necessity.” Let’s look closer at the data behind these confusing facts. more…
Turns out there may really be (almost) such a thing as a flux capacitor. For those of you under 30 years of age, I digress to explain the term flux capacitor. more…
The FCC was told again to back off any heavy-handed approach to “voluntary” spectrum surrender. A proposed bill from Senator Rockefeller, D-WV, S.3756, includes language that would prevent Genachowski’s crew from forcing TV stations to relinquish spectrum.
Virtually all of the bill is focused on creating a structure to build and fund a nationwide public safety broadband network. In the bill, users would be provided an additional 10MHz of spectrum along with $11 billion, or more, in funding. more…
In reading some FCC news, I ran across several articles describing the commission’s continued (mis)use of the Universal Service Fund (USF). I’ve written before about this taxpayer fiasco.
I pay a total of $13.00 in taxes on a base telephone line rate of $19.00, or 68 percent! That amount includes the USF tax and a host of other “charges” the feds, the state and the city government have decided I need to pay. My fear is that Genachowski’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) will include even higher taxes to support expanded telecommunication services. more…
In a ruling targeted at mobile television reception, the FCC this week approved waivers from the all-channel tuner requirement that television receivers be capable of decoding both analog and digital TV signals. The one caveat is that the wavier applies only to tuners designed exclusively for mobile applications. Fixed-location receivers are still required to be able to receive analog signals. more…
When my company first entered the “electronic age,” editors were prohibited from having CD/DVD drives. Never mind that clients were supplying new product information on CDs. Then, the IT wunderkinds decided to block some websites. After all, employees should focus on business tasks, right? But the most egregious, stupid and humiliating misstep the IT department took was when it decided to use a word “filter” on forums. Might be a good idea — uh no! more…
I mentioned in a previous post that I had followed Apple’s Sept. 1 press conference. A more apt characterization of the event might be a meeting of the church of Apple fanatics. 
