You know that exorbitant monthly fee you pay to your cable provider for broadband Internet access, which you’ve been using to update your iPod and get your Xtube.com fix? Comcast, the nation’s second-largest ISP, wants to cap your ass — potentially at 250 gigabytes per month, and charging any customer who goes over the limit. [BW] Its been their policy for a while now to actually phone customers who go over a 2 gigabyte ceiling and tell ‘em to cool it, or risk having their account canceled.
If you’re just considering download (and not upload) traffic, that’s about 50 high-def movies or more than 6,000 songs each month.
Or, according to Comcast, “excessive users” are those who download 50,000 songs per month or send 40 million emails. Um, we call those people spammers.
YANKER WANKERS When Comcast tried putting MSNBC on its digital tier in Oregon, yanking it from its standard channel line-up, bloggers revolted! Now, the The Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission says the cable co. failed to provide customers with a required 30-day notice, and so must pay up $1 for each affected customer, or $43,899. The money will go to the commission, not the consumers, because, they say, it would be too hard to find those who disaffected because they couldn’t watch Hardball. [Oregon Live]
Rupert Murdoch lavished some $5 billion on Dow Jones to pick up leading journalism institutions including the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. Now the Weather Channel, a unit of privately-held Landmark Communications, is looking to score that same amount of cash in a sale. And folks like NBC and Comcast might just pony up the dough for it. [Variety]
Suuure, cable industry critic and FCC chairman Kevin Martin may have helped some media companies – by allowing ownership of both a newspaper and a TV or radio station in the same market, so long as there are at least eight other sources of news, and that the TV station is not among the top four – but he also managed to piss off some behemoths with his voting yesterday.
Namely, Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, which has been snapping up smaller outfits with hest. But the new rules mean no single company can control more than 30 percent of the cable market, which means Comcast’s expansion ends right … NOW.
Unless it can get a court to overturn the ruling. And try, they will.
So while the struggling newspaper industry has been offered a de-regulatory hand-out, the booming (less that WGA mess) television industry was dealt a blow. Not that either side is happy. CONTINUED »
You may think Sumner Redstone and Rupert Murdoch are the sexiest media executives out there, but they aren’t the highest paid. Nah, that superlative goes to Comcast’s chief Brian Roberts, whose annual earnings chime in at $33.5 million.
Among those trailing (not so far) behind him:
• Cox Communications CEO James Robbins: $29.4m
• Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone: $28.3m
• News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch: $23.6m
• Disney CEO Robert Iger: $11.9m
By the absence of Jason Binn, it’s clear AdAge doesn’t track the earnings of Niche Media.
• After testifying again in front of a grand jury, Judith Miller has been released of contempt of court charges — thanks to those notes she just happened upon. [IHT]
• Despite what the upcoming third issue of Radar has to say about Jeff Zucker’s tenure at NBC, Katie Couric is countering claims that her relationship with her boss as “soured.” They’re still very close, piratically touching, just like her knees. [Lowdown]
• Is it possible that the New York Times newsroom is even “more demoralized now than during the 2003 debacle over Jayson Blair’s serial fabrications” thanks to the handling of Judith Miller’s case? In a word: abso-fucking-lutely. [WaPo]
• Aileen Mehle has ended her five decade gossip reign, closing the doors on a career that included the New York Post, Daily Mirror, WWD and W. In this era of snark, nothing is sacred anymore. [Page Six]
• Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi Ding might just become the most powerful personality at News Corp., which is easier to say now that Lachlan Murdoch pussied out. [Malaysian Star]
• Google and Comcast are looking to bloat their own empires with the purchase of a minority stake in AOL. Just in time too, since Time Warner is suddenly realizing how valuable its Internet property just might be. [Reuters]
• Since you can’t find music videos on MTV anymore, perhaps now you’ll be able to find them on your iPod. Oh, and Lost and Desperate Housewives too. [AP]
• As if Esquire food critic John Mariani didn’t come off yesterday as being too demanding, now he’s demanding an apology from Chicago chef Homaru Cantu, who trashed Mariani for (what else?) trashing him. [Page Six]
• Fox is raising the stakes for American Idol advertisers, raising 30-second spot fees to $700,000 (reportedly the largest ever for a regular primetime show).
• The New Yorker got a slap on the wrist from ASME for its all-Target issue that didn’t include much (if any) notice that the retailer’s illustrations were indeed advertisements. You know, because the mag’s high-brow readers might’ve thought otherwise.
• Martha Stewart is working on a new lifestyle magazine that’s already a month behind its schedule to premiere on newsstands by Spring 2006. They’re testing titles with focus groups and right now it’s just being referred to as “the new magazine.” But no matter what, Martha’s name won’t be appearing on the cover.
• Despite the New York Post’s alleging Viacom and Comast were working together to create new super niche cable networks, heads at both media companies are denying any such arrangement.
• After much busy talk Google is finally launching its blog search engine, which is only going to give even more undeserved authority to our likelihood. Interestingly, a Google search for “blog search engine” doesn’t yet include its own site.
• Rick Kaplan’s appointment of Situation Room’s exec producer Bill Wolff as executive of MSNBC’s primetime is being met with generally positive reviews (”There’s nothing negative about him”). Beside winning nicety awards, he can be seen chewing plenty of Nicorette, which we hope he’ll share with Keith Olbermann.
• The days of Keith Olbermann bullying may be numbered, now that Rick Kaplan may be on his way out as MSNBC president. After getting passed over to head NBC News when Neal Shapiro announced his departure, his tenure there might not last the year.
• Howard Kurtz is joining Geraldo Rivera’s cause, calling for the New York Times to issue an apology to the talk show host for claiming he staged a Hurricane Katrina rescue for the camera’s benefit.
• While Rodale couldn’t make Organic Style work (though it still appears on the website), the publisher is going ahead with a full-scale launch for Women’s Health, the Men’s Health spin-off. Finally there will be some David Zinczenko-style loving for the ladies.
• TV Guide president John Loughlin is quitting for the greener (and more stable) pastures at Hearst, taking over as vice president of the publisher late next month.
• Viacom and Comcast are working together to launch a new swatch of super-niche cable channels, because the YES Network and The Food Network aren’t specific enough.
• Clear Channel is clearing the way to get song from new artists and unsigned bands into the hands of listeners by debuting tracks on their website.
• Is Men’s Vogue an oxymoron all by itself? If Anna Wintour falls out of her seat and nobody there’s to see it, did she really skip Diane Von Furstenberg’s fashion show?
Since they’re doing a fine job exploiting (or is it “reporting on”?) Hurricane Katrina, the media are reaching into their deep pockets to help in the recovery efforts. They’re throwing around cash like Pat Sajak (and penning conservative editorials about as often), but for the benefit of the victims, it’s their egos that are driving their checkbook zeros.
Hoping to top one another, media companies continue announcing just how many millions they’re handing out. Disney wrote checks worth $2.5 million, Comcast upped the ante with a $10 million donation and Viacom shortchanged New Orleans sufferers with just $1 million.
Then again, every media org with a TV outlet is clamoring for a celebrity-fueled relief concert and the donated air time is probably worth more than the checks they’re writing. They’re just lucky the fall season hasn’t started yet — we’re not willing to miss any of The O.C. Even encore plays.
(Image via AP Satellite)
Editorial Director
