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January 3, 2013

News for the cable and broadband industry

Business News

Al Jazeera will take over Current TV
Al Jazeera, the news network owned by Qatar's government, has announced that it will take over U.S. cable channel Current TV, which was founded and partly owned by former Vice President Al Gore. The network will turn Current TV into a new channel, Al Jazeera America, with a majority of programming emanating from the U.S. Time Warner Cable, which had been carrying Current TV on a contingent basis because of poor ratings, said Wednesday it will now drop it from its lineup. The New York Times (tiered subscription model)/Media Decoder blog (1/2), Bloomberg (1/3), The Wall Street Journal/Associated Press (1/3)

RLTV, Next Avenue agree to share online content
Cable network RLTV is partnering with PBS site Next Avenue -- both target the over-50 demographic -- on a content-sharing agreement. RLTV will add Next Avenue content to its website, and the PBS site will produce original online content for RLTV, writes Fern Siegel. MediaPost Communications/MediaDailyNews (1/2)

Business Services Update

Greater faith in Internet reliability lifts VoIP prospects
Voice over Internet Protocol is expected to grow at an annual rate of 16.7% over the next five years, despite the competition from cellphones, according to an IBISWorld forecast. Analyst Kevin Boyland credited the comeback to greater trust in the "robustness" of the Internet. "[C]able-based VoIP providers will likely remain the largest players in the industry due to the popularity of cable TV," Rory Lidstone writes. TMCNet.com (1/2)

Eye on Video

Cable series take 9 of top 10 slots in most time-shifted shows
"Breaking Bad," "Mad Men" and "Warehouse 13" topped the list of the most time-shifted shows, according to Nielsen. Cable fare dominated the list, which included only one broadcast show in the top 10: Fox's "Fringe." Adweek (1/2)

Marketing Trends

Food Network cooks up rebranding as viewers eat it up
Food Network is rebranding its cable presence with a modified logo and other changes that emphasize an expansion of its programming beyond the expected instructional cooking shows. The Scripps Network Interactive-owned network is coming off its most-watched year, when it averaged 1.1 million viewers in prime time. Variety (subscription required) (1/2)

Pixar boosts "Monsters University" during Rose Bowl broadcast
A Pixar ad for the film "Monsters University" was conceived as a typical university booster seen during college-football broadcasts. It first aired during ESPN's broadcast of the Rose Bowl, as if it were a real school. "Imagine an education where extraordinary becomes standard," says the ad's voice-over. A corresponding website reinforces, the gag with information on scholarships and enrollment as well as bios for instructors. The Hollywood Reporter (1/2)

Association News

CTAM's Advanced Cable Solutions Consortium, at the forefront in new media space
Top video distributors, content providers and technology developers work together in CTAM's Consortium to easily explain the latest in cable technology. Topics such as multiplatform, On Demand, 3DTV, IPV6 and metrics are centrally located and defined on CTAM's Advanced Cable Resources page.

CTAM study Watchapalooza connects emotions with viewing habits

Mark Greatrex, chief marketing and sales officer, Cox Communications, discusses how viewing content across multiple devices within the home is highly valued by the consumer. He believes marketers and content providers can learn more from closely looking at viewing occasions and the associated emotions of the consumer, as reported in CTAM's recent study Watchapalooza.

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	Recent CTAM SmartBrief Issues: Wednesday, January 02, 2013 Monday, December 31, 2012 Friday, December 28, 2012 Thursday, December 27, 2012 Wednesday, December 26, 2012			Lead Editor: Stephen Yusko CTAM Editorial Advisor: Jason King Mailing Address: SmartBrief, Inc.®, 555 11th ST NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004