Consoles Now Rival VCRs As Alternate TV Viewing Channel (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Media Daily News ^ | October 21, 2010 | Joe Mandese

[abb]

TV may be going everywhere - from hand-held mobile to streaming Internet services and devices - but one of the biggest alternate channels for television content is already in millions of American households: videogame console devices such as Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's PS3, and Nintendo's Wii. According to new research being released today by Knowledge Networks, one-in-five U.S. consumers already are using game systems to watch TV or movie content at least once a month.

The new report, "Over-the-Top TV: A Complete Video Landscape," which comes from KN's ongoing Home Technology Monitor tracking studies, details how American consumers already are utilizing 23 different methods for accessing TV and movie content outside traditional "live" TV viewing platforms such as linear broadcast, cable and satellite TV.

The KN report reveals that 21% of American consumers already utilize their videogame systems to view conventional TV/movie content via their consoles, and that using them to play DVDs (17%) is currently their No. 1 options, but a significant percentage also is using them to view content either via Blueray discs (6%) or via some method of online streaming or downloading (6%). Those numbers shoot-up for younger demographics most likely to utilize videogame systems as a primary entertainment device (see table below).

One of the primary reasons, says KN Vice President David Tice, is that the leading videogame systems were designed as so-called "Trojan horses" that had advanced TV viewing options such as high-definition DVD, Blueray, and streaming functionality built in them from the start.

"What we wanted to try and do is put the newer options in context with some of the older things, or the more mundane ways of watching TV," says Tice. To put the current videogame usage of video programming in context, Tice says that videogame systems are now used as by as many consumers (21%) as old-fashioned VCRs to watch video content at least once a month.

[abb]

"By the end of this decade or shortly thereafter, television networks as we know them today will cease to exist. They will be just another url on the world wide web competing against millions of others."

"Network evening newscasts will go dark after the '08 elections and their news divisions disbanded."

Walter Abbott, (b. 1950), Media observer, blogger and commentator

[abb]

ping

[MrEdd]

Read the TV guide, you don't need a TV

Morning Abb.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

VCRs? I’m going to have to telex this to all my friends. They’ll never believe it.

[a fool in paradise]

Streaming content on demand means that you “don’t need” a vcr.

It also means you can be nickeled and dimed (and tabulated) every time you watch something.

[abb]

http://nationalinterest.org/print/bookreview/murdoch-4267
A large part of the country does not trust the industry now, and the news-delivering credibility of the old media has sharply declined, whether the Kool-Aid-drinking devotees of Washingtonpost.com see it or not.

http://www.slate.com/id/2271710/
Why Time Needs Newsweek

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2010/oct/20/media-general-reports-loss-revenue-increase-ar-574818/
Media General reports loss, revenue increase

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/oct/20/righthaven-defendant-wins-first-lawsuit-dismissal-/
Righthaven defendant wins first lawsuit dismissal motion

[EscapedDutch]

Got rid of DirecTV and only have basic cable that comes with high speed internet. Use a dedicated PC with Windows Media Center as a DVR, use Hulu and other sites for programs not available on basic cable. Saving $120/mo taking this approach!

[abb]

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

PS3 for Netflix straeming AND blurays...can’t beat it!

[abb]

http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/10/can-we-make-journalism-a-tax-exempt-purpose-expanding-the-meaning-of-nonprofit-journalism/
Can we make journalism a tax-exempt purpose? Expanding the meaning of nonprofit journalism

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Headlines/investors-to-make-offer-on-the-boston-globe-63034-.aspx
Investors to Make Offer on The Boston Globe

http://www.slate.com/id/2271662/
No Hulu For You!

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/20/v-fullstory/1883291/many-candidates-ignore-media-but.html
Candidates ignore media, but it’s voters who stand to lose

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101020/ap_en_tv/us_tv_evening_news
Are evening newscasts headed for shift?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/zell_on_the_hot_seat_gJZxy06QViCL701YqLyeBN
Zell on the hot seat

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/10/21/entrepreneur_planning_unsolicited_bid_for_globe/
Entrepreneur planning unsolicited bid for Globe

[nitzy]

We are doing something similar. No cable at all. No land phone line. $20 DSL + $9 Netflix streaming + Media PC for TV + OTA Antenna = all the TV I need. We have a Wii hooked up to the kid’s TV to steam Netflix. We are also going to get a $60 Roku player for the bedroom TV to stream Netflix or other media on the home network.

[abb]

ping

[Gideon7]

Last week Nintendo added the ‘Netflix channel’ to the Wii. You can download and install it from the Wii Shopping channel.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

Yeah, Ps3 had the same thing happen. No longer need to use their cd, and the quality is much improved.

[Zakeet]

Media General reports loss, revenue increase

Looking at the numbers in a little more depth:

TV ad revenues are up 3.3 percent, "driven by an 18 percent increase in broadcast television revenues." They own 18 alphabet nitwork stations and, after all, it is an election year. Hence, they basically cashed in on a semi-annual boon.

The company also owns, "three metropolitan and 20 community newspapers, more than 200 specialty publications including weekly newspapers." This segment of their business is obviously sinking fast.

The company lost $10.7 million this in the third quarter this year compared to a loss of $62.5 million in the third quarter of last year, "when it took an $82.5 million impairment charge."

In other words, MG's auditors forced it to write down $62.5 million in assets (without looking, I'd guess goodwill from prior acquisitions) for which there is basically no possibility of ever recovering their value. Without that charge, they would have made a profit of $20 million.

Bottom line: Media General went from a $80 million annualized profit to a $44 million annualized loss despite an enormous boost from campaign ad revenue. This despite giving up amortization charges on 60+ million in assets.

The company is in the toilet. Expect them to fold completely in a couple of years or less (a) if their business doesn't turn around drastically; or (b) if interest rates increase.

[abb]

I’m deep into this book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Air:_The_Men_Who_Made_Radio

There’s a very interesting couple of pages (which I’m transcribing) about how the US Govt seized control of almost all radio broadcasting during WWI.

Here’s the man who did it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_Daniels

[ClearCase_guy]

I can acces Netflix through a wii and I can access it through Roku. I think that's pretty cool.

Does anyone know how my wireless home network can trasmit Hulu (or similar internet website) directly to my TV? I've considered running a very long HDMI cable from my PC to my TV, clicking on Hulu at my PC and then sitting in the Living Room, watching Hulu "on the TV" but that doesn't get me much.

I want to access Hulu as easily as I access Netflix, but I don't know if there is a way. Anyone?

[Gen-X-Dad]

Hulu Desktop is a competing service to Netflix. They want to charge about the same ($9/Month) to deliver it to Web-TVs and consoles. You can get it for free on your laptop. I am not for sure if they are ready for the consoles at this time. I also recommend you look into Tversity for consoles. It is a media server that uses the same wireless transfer as Netflix. You can rip your DVD collection, and bring in YouTube and Hulu through Tversity. It is pretty easy to use and is also really nice after you get your library set up. Just be ready to dig into video converters and rippers if you go that way (my current project).

Netflix has even become easier to use as they just got rid of the need to have a streaming CD for the consoles (very nice, less wear and tear on the Blue-Ray player in my PS3). Since we changed over to streaming Netflix on our PS3 enabled TV’s we have not looked back and we are saving about $60 a month, which gives us a nice pool of money for trying out new hardware and software. We have kept our DVR for sports and still get local cable but nothing else. I may eventually do my own DVR on Windows Media Center if I get around to it and ditch the local cable.

I recently got a call from Verizon offering me 6 free months of their movie channels and a reduced monthly fee afterwards. I turned it down and they asked why? I let them know about Netflix and also that the younger family members have not watched TV shows in about 2 years as they prefer the computer and consoles. The Verizon rep was stunned and almost speechless.

Netflix is constantly expanding their streaming library. They will be very hard to dislodge. Cable TV is about to become road kill.

[ClearCase_guy]

Thanks!

[Erasmus]

I believe Ronald Coase was the first economist to take a serious look at the whole government takeover of the airwaves issue in a paper of 1959, and subsequent economists have also studied the issue from a property-rights perspective.

In the year 1927, pioneer radio stations were beginning to stake out claims to frequencies over given areas in the courts, based on a property rights legal theory. Then, the US government stepped in and created the Federal Radio Commission, which immediately nationalized the airwaves.

Coase's revisitation of this historical episode revealed the benefits that would have accrued if the original road had been continued.