Public interest investigative journalism organization Public Integrity has launched a very cool new tool called the “Media Tracker.” Users can enter their zip codes, or town and state names and then the tracker scans a database to pull up lists of local media and telecommunications services, along with ownership information for each outlet.
The results then provide a list of how many TV and radio stations, cable providers, broadband providers and newspapers there are within 100 miles of the location. Tabs at the top allow users to click through to find out which companies own these outlets — with the exception of broadband providers. The Center is drawing upon the FCC’s broadband ownership database, which only makes publicly available the number of broadband providers in a given county. The Center has filed a lawsuit against the FCC for its failure to provide more detailed data on broadband providers under the Freedom of Information Act.
Just for grins, I entered my zip code, 20814. Here’s the number of media outlets within a hundred miles of me.
—25 licensed television stations
—55 licensed radio stations
—2 matching cable communities
—17 reported broadband providers
—30 newspapers within 100 miles
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 2:22 PM | Print | Comments (0)
As public interest groups fight the merger of AT&T and BellSouth, arguing that too much power in the hands of one phone company will harm consumers, Business Week’s Steve Rosenbush has this piece today that makes the opposite case. He points to Wall Street’s renewed attraction to AT&T and BellSouth given the growth in profits both companies reported for Q3 06.
Although Rosenbush seems to accept the telcos’ arguments a little too uncritically (i.e. they need national scale to mount video services), he does raise the fundamental problem for the phone companies, namely that cable competition is poised to do some serious damage.
The fact is, AT&T and Verizon must invest in new technology. Cable TV operators such as Comcast (CMCSA) and Time Warner (TWX) are selling high-quality digital phone services loaded with features. “It’s easier for the cable companies to expand into phone service than it is for the phone companies to expand into TV, so for now the cable companies have the edge,” says Richard Siderman, a telecom credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s.
I’m not sure, however, that getting bigger will help ease the telcos’ competitive woes. They’ll save money, that’s for sure, and the ability to cut costs is one big reason why AT&T and BellSouth generated such soaring profits during the past quarter. As Rosenbush notes “the companies are doing better financially; investors are being rewarded.”
But it’s going to be increasingly hard for the telcos to reward investors with bigger profits and at the same time spend money on new technologies to keep pace with cable operators. Verizon knows this well — its FiOS fiber-to-premises initiative is a costly endeavor that doesn’t help earnings but will pay off in the long run with a robust network capable of eating away at cable’s technological superiority.
And unlike AT&T, Verizon isn’t getting any bigger. It isn’t currently aiming for national scale to justify its investments in video technology. So it’s not clear how the merger of AT&T and BellSouth is necessary to keep the telcos competitive, reward investors and help consumers at the same time. Which is not to say the merger shouldn’t go through…it’s just that getting bigger won’t likely help AT&T and BellSouth in their competitive battles.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:21 AM | Print | Comments (0)
The New York Times’ David Halbfinger has this piece today about how one of Hollywood’s top talent agencies, United Talent Agency, has formed a new unit to scour the web for new stars. But there’s an interesting twist: the new group is not only looking to find talent it can pluck from the web and use in other media, such as TV and movies, but it is also looking for talent it can use for other web sites.
The goal this time around, executives say, is not only to recruit the next generation of television and film writers and directors from the relative obscurity of sites like YouTube and Revver. It is also to help the major Web portals that are hungry for original content to find the creative people they need — just as movie studios have long turned to talent agencies when looking for new directors, screenwriters and actors.
The three 26 year-old agents that form the new unit at United Talent have already cut six-figure deal with a major media portals and have already signed videobloggers, online film auteurs and other creative content developers to sell their wares to big online companies.
And the traditional objective of converting these online stars into TV or movie writers, directors and actors is receding.
United Talent, by contrast, is taking the risk that relatively small deals today will quickly grow in size and scope, and it is banking on the notion that artists surfacing on the Internet may often be quite content to have successful careers that do not make the leap to TV or film.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:16 AM | Print | Comments (0)
“In the old days, i.e., two months ago, it was about signing up those clients and immediately figuring out how to flip them into traditional media,” Mr. Weinstein {Brent Weinstein, head of the new division, UTA Online] said. “Now we can look at an artist and say, that might be a goal, but in the interim, or while we’re doing that, or instead of that, how can we monetize their interests online?”
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