Techno-politics

James Dao reports: If Mayor John F. Street has his way, by next year this 135-square-mile metropolis will become one gigantic wireless hot spot, offering every neighborhood high-speed access to the Web at below-market prices in what would be the largest experiment in municipal Internet service in the country.   City officials envision a seamless Continue Reading →

In a 4-to-1 vote, the FCC ruled that cable only “must-carry” one digital signal from each broadcast licensed station in their footprint.  This is being seen, rightly or wrongly, as a stunning defeat for the broadcasters and a serious win for the cable industry. “This is a major victory for consumers …” said exiting CEO Continue Reading →

The 2005 Media Summit New York started off with a bang yesterday morning as keynote speaker, Mel Karmazin, CEO Sirius Satellite Radio was interviewed by BusinessWeek Media Editor, Tom Lowry.   Always entertaining, Mel started off by throwing down the gauntlet to terrestrial radio – calling it a mature business with growth limited to GDP increases.  Continue Reading →

Linda Moss of Multichannel News reports: “Regional phone companies planning video services will be forced to pay cash to carry local broadcast-TV stations — which will initially put them at a competitive disadvantage to cable, but will ultimately cause problems for MSOs, a Wall Street analyst said Monday.”   Add this to the upcoming FCC Continue Reading →

You just never know what Ted Turner is going to say. Today, he was into world politics and mentioned that “… several thousand unguarded nuclear warheads posed the biggest threat to our safety. Voting for the AOL/Time Warner merger was the biggest mistake he ever made. The $1,000 Social Security check he receives from the Continue Reading →

I was at CES I was lucky enough to spend a few minutes with Joseph Damato, Director – Consumer Electronics for Delphi.  They make hardware for XM and Sirius Satellite Radio.  Our conversation was about compatibility and consumer choice.  While Joseph did not want me to use a time frame, he did say that the Continue Reading →