Tuesday 30 September 2014
Why Comcast May Soon Launch An Online-Only Subscription Service
Moving its set-top boxes and DVRs to a cloud-based delivery system positions Comcast to eventually offer a streaming video package with a smaller bundle of networks both inside and outside of its markets.
Comcast's X1 trending shows screenshot
Comcast / Via corporate.comcast.com
Here's something to think about: Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S. with around 22 million total subscribers, will soon have more broadband subscribers than video subscribers for the first time ever.
It's a tipping point the industry as a whole reached at the end of the second quarter, and one that Comcast has been anticipating for several years. The company over the last two years has been steadily moving its subscribers to an internet-based delivery system for video via its X1 set-top box and improving the functionality of its DVR to allow for the streaming of live TV to any device in the home and access to recorded shows via streaming or download outside of the home.
But while the upgrades are a nice feature for current subscribers, Comcast isn't making them so teenagers don't have to watch TV in the same room as their parents anymore. The end goal in moving its service and subscribers to a cloud-based system, which you won't hear from Comcast executives while its impending $45.2 billion merger with Time Warner Cable is under the regulatory microscope, is to position Comcast to eventually offer a smaller bundle of broadband and video to consumers inside and — here's the important part — outside of its markets under the Xfinity brand banner in the future. The very near future, like next year even.
"Comcast is fully prepared and technologically capable of launching an over-the-top video service," said BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Today's news that Comcast is rolling out its live in-home streaming and cloud-based DVR features to subscribers in the Bay Area, the eighth market in its footprint to receive the upgrade, joining Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., is an indirect step in that direction.
Comcast demonstrated some of the new features for BuzzFeed News last week, among them super-fast download speeds, a smart programming guide that listed shows in both a linear fashion and by what was trending on social media, a recommendation engine based on past viewing, and the ability to pick up a show where you left off while switching viewing between devices. These features are delivered via the X1 set-top box, an Xfinity TV app for iPhones and Androids, and a dedicated website.
Comcast Senior Vice President for Video Matt Strauss and other executives will tell you the added features help "maximize the value of what our customers pay us for" and that the focus is on creating a better "package and bundle of services within our footprint."
Indeed, the only drawback to the service is that to get it you have to be a Comcast cable subscriber. For now at least.
Comcast is already experimenting with smaller bundles inside of the markets in which it operates. The company currently offers something called "Internet Plus," which combines in-home wireless service with more than 25 channels, including the broadcast networks and HBO, and Streampix movie service. Outside of the home "Internet Plus" subscribers can use the Xfinity TV Go app to access live and on-demand content that is part of their subscription.
Comcast has also made a big push into universities within its markets with a product called "Xfinity on Campus." This package allows students to stream video to devices over the college's internet service or using a wireless network to log into TV networks's individual apps.
"There are customers who would see value in a slimmer bundle, and we want to start building relationships with them, whether they are millennials or customers in other demographics," Strauss said.
The reason why Comcast wants to "build relationships" with these customers is because they are both the least likely to want an actual cable subscription and are the ones increasingly being targeted by streaming video providers like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Google. But it's not just the insurgent newcomers that are going after Comcast subscribers — it is also long-entrenched incumbents. Satellite television distributor Dish Network has inked deals with ESPN, A+E Networks, Food Network, HGTV, and other channels and plans to launch a cheaper, internet-delivered streaming video package by the end of this year. Sony and Verizon also plan to launch streaming video services between now and the middle of next year, and AT&T's impending purchase of DirecTV will allow those companies to experiment with all kinds of streaming offerings to mobile devices.
"If Dish, Sony, and Verizon all launch over-the-top video services, then Comcast will be forced to launch one of its own," said Greenfield, adding that it could happen as soon as next year. "There is no way they let those guys come into their markets and stand idly by while they go after their subscribers."
"AlpenGlow"
PHOTOGRAPHY - Nature Session - Reflection © Art GallerY ElDorado -Drawing and PhotographY- http://ift.tt/1n5wHVi NIKON CORPORATION THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LIKES AND COMMENTS feel free to share my photos on your FB page
Unstoppable beauty!
The Gorgopotamos is one of my favorite rivers ... from where we started to where it ends! Full of beautiful small and big points for photography or even a cold bath, sometimes dangerous and other so friendly! Never stops flowing water never stops to beauty gives you all the days of the year! Photo from two horizontal shots at 30sec! ---------- Ο Γοργοπόταμος είναι ένα από τα αγαπημένα μου ποτάμια... από εκεί που ξεκινάει μέχρι εκεί που καταλήγει! Γεμάτο όμορφα μικρά και μεγάλα σημεία για φωτογράφιση ή ακόμη και ένα ψυχρό μπάνιο, επικίνδυνο κάποιες φορές αλλά και φιλικό άλλες τόσες! Δε σταματά ποτέ να κυλάει νερό, δε σταματά ποτέ να σου χαρίζει ομορφιά όλες τις μέρες του χρόνου! Φωτογραφία από δύο οριζόντιες λήψεις στα 30 δευτερόλεπτα! ---------- Better view in black! Όσοι γράφουν ανθελληνικά greeklish σχόλια, να τα χαίρονται… Αι ντοντ νόου δις μπάσταρντ λάνγκουιτς!!! :·) Και δεν είμαι Άγγλος, γράφε μου Ελληνικά! http://ift.tt/13GIiB9 & http://ift.tt/SqnYkT
The coloring of autumn
mist+sun =mistical depth. is not it? choose your right way) good luck i hope you like my works
Ray Lambrecht, Collector of Chevrolets, Is Dead at 96
By BRUCE WEBER via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1CFE4N2
Critical Time for Pimco, as Pensions Consider Removing Funds in Wake of Bill Gross Departure
By MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN and LANDON THOMAS JR. via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1xzbw7N
Lawyer Tries to Paint a Fed in Discord in A.I.G. Bailout
By AARON M. KESSLER via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1owSQ0n
Even a Stand-Alone PayPal Has Far to Go to Topple the Old Payment Order
By PETER EAVIS via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1DXBqnv
‘Twilight’ Will Be Revived via Short Films on Facebook
By BROOKS BARNES via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1rs3vzc
Oil and Railroad Industries Seek 7 Years for Retrofitting
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1ppdtLT
Walgreen Reports Loss of $239 Million for Quarter
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1DXvN8F
Advertising Week: Marketers Are Urged to Become Fearless
By STUART ELLIOTT via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1CFur0M
In Trying to Save Darden, Its Board Sealed Its Own Demise
By STEVEN DAVIDOFF SOLOMON via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1rEjNUz
16 Women Entrepreneurs Who Are Changing The Way Business Is Done In The Arab World
Arab Women Rising , published in 2014 by the Wharton Business School, profiles female entrepreneurs from around the Middle East and North Africa.
Authors Nafeesa Syeed and Rahilla Zafar roamed the Middle East and North Africa in search of something common but often overlooked: Successful female entrepreneurs. In their 2014 book, Arab Women Rising, published by the Wharton Business School, Syeed and Zafar profile just 35 of the hundreds of innovative women they interviewed. Coming from diverse background and fields, the women shared their candid insight and personal stories about how they've made it in volatile business environments where female faces have often been made to feel unwelcome.
Here are samples of 16 of the stories profiled in Arab Women Rising: 35 Entrepreneurs Making a Difference in the Arab World :
Deena Fadel: “Work is not work for me. It’s a passion. It’s love.”
Deena Fadel, an Egyptian artist, quit her job at an advertising agency to start her own home accessories line, Joude. She takes inspiration from Cairo's crowded streets, integrating traditional Arab motifs and calligraphy into every usable items, from coasters to pillows.
Arab Women Rising
Asma Mansour: “We have to think of how to solve social problems and to push the economy for growth.”
During the Tunisian Revolution in 2011, Asma Mansour found herself asking: How does one fight for social change in a sustainable way? Mansour researched several models, and subsequently co-founded the Tunisian Center for Social Entrepreneurship, a social innovation incubator that offers fellowships to those with new ideas.
Arab Women Rising
Dana Al Taji: "Why not play around with it?"
When Palestinian designer Dana Al Taji started to wear the Abeeya, a full length black cloak, she felt constricted by the options. So Al Taji took to Facebook and started her own line, called LAYAL, and now has her own boutique in Cairo.
Arab Women Rising
Galaxy of Alps
A photo from this summer, second edit. Learned some new milky way techniques recently and this shot is still one of my best Milky Way shots.
Theater Chains Push Back Against Netflix Plan for ‘Crouching Tiger’ Sequel
By EMILY STEEL via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1CFduDB
The Weird Genius Of The "Crouching Tiger 2" Netflix Deal
By releasing a major feature film on the streaming service — and in IMAX — the Weinstein Company has crafted the strangest, and perhaps savviest, ploy yet to shut out movie theaters from the movie business.
Michelle Yeoh in 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Sony Pictures Classics
Late Monday night, Netflix and The Weinstein Company announced that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend would be the first major feature film to debut exclusively on the digital streaming service — instead of in a standard theatrical release — on Aug. 28, 2015. Although the announcement also noted that the film would also debut in "select" IMAX theaters worldwide on the same date, it is already clear that the movie won't be appearing on IMAX screens housed in three of the largest movie theater chains in the U.S.: Regal, Cinemark, and Carmike. In a statement to BuzzFeed News, AMC Theaters, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group, did not state unequivocally that they would not exhibit Crouching Tiger 2, but its sharp tone remains perhaps the best encapsulation of how exhibitors feel about this deal in general:
AMC Theatres and Wanda Cinema are the largest operators of IMAX-equipped auditoriums in the world. We license just the technology from IMAX. Only AMC and Wanda decide what programming plays in our respective theatres. No one has approached us to license this made-for-video sequel in the U.S. or China, so one must assume the screens IMAX committed are in science centers and aquariums.
Despite the outcry from theater chains, this announcement could fundamentally reshape the way the movie industry regards the way it does business. More likely, it will serve as simply yet another example of the slow, unstoppable expansion of what it means to watch a movie. Regardless of the outcome, however, it is a showdown that has been a long time coming within the movie business and — let's be clear here — it is kind of weird that it is happening now, with this movie, on this service. And kind of genius.
It is weird that The Weinstein Company, which did not exist when Ang Lee's Oscar-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became the highest-grossing foreign language film in the U.S. in 2000, is making a sequel 14 years later that does not involve Lee nor any of the first film's creative team, except for fight choreographer Yuen Wo-Ping, who is directing the new film outright. TWC can call the movie a sequel because, for one, John Fusco (The Forbidden Kingdom) is writing the movie based on the same novel series by Wang Dulu that inspired the first Crouching Tiger, and for another, actress Michelle Yeoh is reprising her role as Yu Shu Lien. (Also weird: The film is shooting not in China, but in New Zealand.)
It is weird that TWC would choose the subscription-based Netflix to exhibit this major feature release, rather than the pay-for-play VOD options that have proven successful on a smaller scale with independent film releases through subsidiary RADIUS-TWC, like Bachelorette and Snowpiercer.
And it is weird that IMAX would risk angering its theatrical partners by agreeing to be the exclusive theatrical parter for the Crouching Tiger 2 Netflix release.
But it is also genius that TWC is using this particular film as its weapon, and IMAX as its partner, to slice through the iron-clad resolve of North American movie theaters to maintain their exclusive window for theatrical exhibition.
And the reason, like so many things with Hollywood of late, has to do with China.
Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy in Tower Heist
Universal Pictures
Let's take a step back for a moment. The "theatrical window" — i.e., the space of time when a feature film is available only at movie theaters, usually lasting roughly three months — is something that major Hollywood studios have been itching to shorten since at least 2011. That's the year Universal floated a plan to offer the Ben Stiller-Eddie Murphy comedy Tower Heist on cable VOD three weeks after its theatrical release — for a whopping $60. It was met with a swift and resolute rejection by American movie theater chains, which refused to show the movie at all if Universal went through with its plan. The studio quickly backed down, because its plan made no sense: The studio still needed that theatrical run, since there was very little chance Tower Heist's target audience was all that keen to spend $60 to watch a movie they would have spent $8 on at the theater. Universal had no leverage, exhibitors knew it, and they called the studio's bluff.
But closing that theatrical window has remained a priority among Hollywood studios, for the simple fact that for over a decade now there has been a seemingly inexorable erosion of audiences away from movie theaters and into their homes. In 2002, according to Box Office Mojo, nearly 1.6 billion tickets were sold in the U.S. Last year, it was just over 1.3 billion — a loss of almost 300 million moviegoers over 11 years. Theaters have been scrambling to entice audiences back, with amenities like assigned seating, fancier chairs, and in-theater food service, while at the same time boosting ticket prices and especially 3D surcharges to make up the difference. But while they've succeeded in propping up box office revenue — $10.9 billion in 2013 versus $9.2 billion in 2002 — that steady drip of audiences away from theaters has been weighing on Hollywood's mind. (This summer's abysmal box office certainly has not helped matters.) Studios want to start making serious money from the other ways people are watching their movies — on their wide-screen TVs, tablets, and (shudder) smartphones — as quickly as possible.
Eucalyptus macrocarpa
Eucalyptus macrocarpa Taken at Fullerton Arboretum Fullerton, California Natural colors / Cropped
And so it begins….
Summer has he'd on …but the brush of autumn colour is starting to paint the trees here in Toronto. I returned to this spot where I featured this bench in B&W . I will return in the coming weeks to catch the full brunt of colour with any luck…but liked the early touches of colour.
Consumer Confidence Falls, Showing Uncertainty in Economy
By REUTERS via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1tesDoK
As Malls Get On Board, Same-Day Delivery Becoming The Norm
More retailers are getting in on same-day delivery this holiday season. The economics of the business finally make sense, experts tell BuzzFeed News.
Ralph D. Freso / Reuters
Five years after Amazon introduced same-day delivery, it's finally catching on with mass retailers.
Macy's said its namesake chain and Bloomingdale's will start piloting same-day delivery in eight major markets this fall, while Neiman Marcus started testing the service in three cities earlier this year. Both department-store companies are using startup Deliv, which has partnered with a laundry list of other retailers and America's biggest mall operators, including General Growth Properties and Simon Property, to make same-day delivery as inexpensive as standard shipping.
Cheap same-day delivery for items like sweaters and Lego sets is the next step in the smartphone-enabled instant gratification trend that's already changing transportation and food delivery. A confluence of factors is hitting at just the right time: retailers finally have the right technology in place after upgrading their systems to accommodate the new norm of "buy online, pick-up in store," labor is cheaper and more connected than ever, and of course, they're motivated by fear of Amazon. Adding to that, mall owners, nervous about their own future, are subsidizing the service.
And it's not just big retailers — just a few weeks ago, apparel startup Everlane started offering one-hour delivery in San Francisco with the help of Postmates. Amazon now offers "Get it Today" in 12 markets, seven days a week, after steadily building up to 70 million square feet of fulfillment center space at the end of last year.
Since Macy's announced its partnership with Deliv this month, the startup has been "flooded with inbound requests," Daphne Carmeli, founder and chief executive of the startup, told BuzzFeed News. "We talk to hundreds of retailers. It's not a question of if I'm going to jump on same-day delivery, it's when and where I start it. I think 2014 is much more aggressive in the volumes we're seeing, and the traction we're seeing is much higher than 2013...it's just growing."
The trend, like many others in the retail industry, can be traced back to Amazon.
"Amazon in the last year has put a tremendous amount of muscle in marketing this notion that you as a shopper can get things whenever you want, you can get it fast and you can get it cheap," Carmeli said. "Whether it's drones, or algorithms, anticipatory shipping, building out warehouses — they're doing so much to get consumers used to the fact that this is going to be fast and cheap and that same-day is going to be the new standard."
Shipping costs, which were once a major barrier for retailers, are much lower than they used to be.
Amazon's same-day delivery costs just $5.99 for Prime members; non-members pay $9.98 for the first item and a 99-cent fee for additional products. Everlane is charging $4.99 for one item; order two or more and the service is free. As for items shipped through Deliv, Carmeli says the delivery fee tends to be between $8 and $10, though it can go as low as $5 as mall operators and retailers offer discounts in hopes of getting customers hooked on the convenience. Foot Locker, which is testing same-day and next-day delivery at five California stores, says the option is only $5 thanks to the partnerships with Deliv and mall operators.
Michael Preysman, founder and CEO of Everlane, says it's not much more expensive to do one-hour delivery with Postmates than it is to ship from the company's warehouse in Denver. He said he sees the rise of cheap same-day delivery as a smartphone-driven phenomenon.
"There's this whole network of couriers that have come about, whether it's Uber, which is doing a bit of delivery stuff, or Postmates, or Instacart, which is starting to bring in more than just groceries," he said. "There's this massive workforce that's completely mobile all the time that didn't exist three years ago."
He noted that same-day delivery is still in its early days, though.
"We don't totally know what the impact is going to be, but there were two ideas," he said. "One is that the convenience is just amazing — you order and literally 40 minutes later, it's at your doorstep. It's this idea of, 'Why would I shop anywhere else?' And as we think about driving activation, we always think of how we lower the barrier to purchase, and a big barrier of purchasing is, 'Well, it'll arrive in four days, so I'll go to my local store.' With this, it's 'Forget it, I'll try Everlane and see if it works."
Still, more consumers are beginning to accept ever-faster shipping as the norm.
"These delivery options, I think it's all part of what the customer is expecting these days," Karen Katz, chief executive officer of Neiman Marcus, told analysts and investors earlier this month. "She just wants optionality."
Greg Greeley, vice president of Amazon Prime, echoed the sentiment.
"More customers have been opting for same-day delivery this year in particular because of the recent improvements we have made to our service," he said in an e-mail to BuzzFeed News. "Prime has made two-day shipping an every day experience rather than an occasional indulgence...and now, Amazon ships more than twice as many items with Prime than with our traditional free shipping. During that same time, we have also dramatically expanded our offering of same-day and one-day shipping alternatives for Prime members – and members are embracing these new delivery options."
Contact the reporter on this story at sapna.m@buzzfeed.com.
caterpillar
something a bit different and unusual and surprisingly beautiful as well. this is a caterpillar at the butterfly farm yesterday. i have never took a close up of a caterpillar before and i was astounded to see the attractive markings on its wee face. the guy at the farm was very informative and was telling us how these creatures are poisonous. their bodies emit a small amount of venom to protect them from prey. if you touch one then put your finger in your mouth without ashing your hands you will have a very painful experience. if you look slightly to the right just slightly under the caterpillar you will also see a small egg thats been laid on the leaf
Skogafoss - Iceland
The waterfall called Skogafoss on day 1 of our Iceland trip - pelting rain and crazy winds on the first day - I was getting a bit cranky from trying to keep the camera lens dry - Eleanor provided a nice touch of blue and a helpful sense of scale.
E.U. Inquiry Into Fiat Tax Deal Could Reverberate
By JAMES KANTER and MARK SCOTT via NYT Business Day http://ift.tt/1DWB6W4
Monday 29 September 2014
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