The original Yule Log

Time Warner Cable is going extreme.  Refreshing last year’s reboot of the timeless holiday tradition of The Yule Log, the cable operator is unveiling a new 3D Holiday Fire experience for subscribers equipped with a 3D-ready television (and appropriate glasses) to make the crackling fire come alive.

The concept of running a looped film of a roaring fire backed by traditional Christmas music was made famous by WPIX-TV in New York and the nation’s cable systems that used to carry the “superstation” well beyond its local coverage area in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.  Fred Thrower, then-president and CEO of WPIX, envisioned showing several hours of a crackling fire Christmas Eve as a gift to New Yorkers who lacked fireplaces.  “Yule Log” premiered in 1966, simulcasting the easy listening Christmas music fare from WPIX-FM.

Originally, a fireplace at the governor’s mansion entertained viewers.  But the 17-second long 16mm film loop quickly deteriorated after two holiday seasons.  The Yule Log that most New Yorkers (and the rest of the country) are most familiar with was filmed on 35mm stock in 1970… in California… in the middle of a scorching hot August.  Viewers had caught on to the short-looped film in the original, but detecting the splice in the later version was much harder.  A clue: it happens at around 6 minutes, 3 seconds into the full screen fire.

For 23 years, WPIX ran the traditional Yule Log program for 2-4 hours Christmas Eve.  It was a ratings sensation, which probably says something about the quality of 1970s television programming, and it was soon duplicated by others.  It disappeared for a time during the late 1980s, but was brought back to comfort New Yorkers during the 2001 Christmas season, post-9/11.  Now a facsimile is available for free, on-demand, anytime during the holiday season from Time Warner Cable, along with repeats of last years’ offerings — “Winter Green” – snow falling on pine branches, and the self-explanatory “Snowman.”  Subscribers can find them under the “Yule Log” category on the Free Movies on Demand and Movies on Demand channels.

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For those who prefer the original, here is a portion of WPIX’s version of The Yule Log from Christmas Eve, 1983.  (9 minutes)

Rogers Cable lets their customers purchase this cable box outright to avoid rental charges.

Stephen Simonin first came to our attention in January 2010 when he proposed charging cable operators room and board for their expensive cable set top boxes they require subscribers to rent.  Now, the chairman of the Litchfield (Conn.) Cable Advisory Council is back with another salvo — demanding an end to mandatory rental charges for cable TV equipment and access to competing providers:

The biggest industry in the US that has money for jobs is the entertainment industry. Federal law requires Cable to carry local broadcast and public channels in the clear for all. If we contact our Federal representatives and ask them to add: “Must carry adjacent competitors programming” We would add a million USA jobs immediately. Paid for by corporate cable and NOT tax dollars!

Cable has forced all of us to RENT cable boxes. We are not allowed to buy them because this is guaranteed free revenue forever for them. A box costs less than $100 and we pay nearly $10 a month for rental and power each month. Cablevision makes over $1,000,000,000 a year on set top box rentals alone. This is only one company! They have compressed TV to less than 20% of the transport. They use the other 80% for business and not covered under TV franchise (Wi-Fi, data, phone business). However, they use the TV franchise for this monopoly access to our front doors.

Adding this must carry clause will allow up to 5 different cable providers at our front doors for lower costs, higher quality and real competition. Cable will not want to give up that fat 80% business revenue they have today and will need to add a new fiber/co-ax transport across the country on their nickel! Think how many local jobs $1,000,000,000 can pay for. Now remember that we have several cable companies here in CT!

These are American jobs! Please help us get this passed! Call our Federal Congressman and Senators today. Remind them of the details I have sent them on behalf of the People.

Simonin’s proposal, sent to Stop the Cap!, enjoys some precedent… in Canada.

Sky Angel, a Christian television distributor, abandoned satellite in favor of IPTV several years ago. Their subscribers watch Sky Angel's channel lineup over a broadband connection.

Consumers there can purchase cable boxes in stores like Best Buy ranging from $80 for a refurbished unit that works with Shaw Cable to $500 for a cable box with DVR designed for Rogers Cable customers.  Buying your own box puts an end to rental fees, often $7+ per month, which never stop, even after the box is effectively paid for in full.  But for those seeking a built-in DVR, the initial price tag is on the steep side.  The practice of buying boxes has also generated some surprising competition between Rogers and itself.  When customers call to inquire about new service, Rogers often includes discounts including free box rentals, making it unnecessary to purchase the box at all (as long as you remember to re-negotiate an extension of the promotion when it ends).  That’s a savings of nearly $100 a year for some customers.  Buying DVR equipment guaranteed to work with your current provider also makes it easy to upgrade the device with larger capacity hard drives that can store more programming.  Since the failure point for most DVR’s is the hard drive, occasional replacements and upgrades can keep a box running for years.  Many pay providers in the United States charge higher rental prices for higher capacity equipment, with no option to buy.

Simonin’s proposal to open up cable networks to other providers is more novel, and probably a lawyer’s dream come true for the endless litigation it offers.  It’s highly unlikely the courts will side with the notion of forcing cable operators to open their infrastructure to competing providers, and considering the amount of informal collusion between companies today, it’s probably not going to deliver much savings.

A bigger hope on the horizon is the ongoing march to IPTV — television programming delivered using Internet technology.  With strong Net Neutrality policies in place (and a strong position against Internet Overcharging with usage caps or usage-based billing), dozens of new virtual “cable companies” could be launched, delivering their lineups over the Internet, direct to computer and television screens.  That could deliver consumers an endless choice of providers, assuming regulatory oversight is in place to make sure programming is available to all at fair and reasonable prices and that broadband providers are not allowed to block or impede access to the offerings that result.

It’s much easier to do an end run around Big Cable than trying to find a way to get them to change their business plans.

Slingbox PRO-HD

In a shot across the bow to programmers demanding compensation for the cable company’s TV Everywhere project, Time Warner Cable has announced it will give away a free Slingbox PRO-HD device to every customer signing up for its top-tier 50/5Mbps Road Runner ‘Wideband’ broadband service.

The Slingbox, which allows customers to watch live streams of cable television programming and other video over a broadband connection, retails for $300 and that is what Time Warner will rebate to new “Wideband” customers who are willing to pay $99 a month for the fastest possible Internet service from the cable operator.

By handing out a free Slingbox, which customers can use to watch whatever channels they want, Time Warner is sending a message to intransigent programmers, particularly Viacom. which has been particularly hard-nosed in its negotiations for streaming rights of popular Viacom networks like Comedy Central and MTV.  Time Warner found its efforts to stream those networks on its free iPad app stymied when Viacom went to court to stop the streams pending compensation negotiations.

With the Slingbox, customers can bypass messy business debates and watch whatever channels they choose to subscribe to, although Time Warner Cable won’t officially declare that as their intention for the new promotion.

Instead, Jeffrey Hirsch, Time Warner’s executive vice-president and chief marketing officer, claims the Slingbox offer is an attempt to drive subscriptions for its DOCSIS 3-based Wideband service.

“Over time we’re really trying to emphasize Wideband as a mainstream product,” Hirsch told the New York Times.

Currently, only a small percentage of customers subscribe to the company’s 50/5Mbps service, most through Time Warner’s super-premium SignatureHome service, which includes the speedy tier as part of its triple-play bundle of phone, Internet, and cable service.  The company sells SignatureHome in most markets for around $200 a month.

The Slingbox promotion is planned for launch this September.  Customers are expected to pay upfront for the device and receive a $300 prepaid debit card as part of the rebate offer.  No word on whether the promotion will extend to new SignatureHome customers, or only to those choosing Wideband service a-la-carte.

Ironically, Slingbox use promotes a major increase in broadband traffic, thanks to high bandwidth HD streaming video.  Time Warner’s Slingbox promotion will drive increased traffic on their broadband networks once customers start watching shows outside of their home.

[flv width=”360″ height=”290″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg Swinburne Sees Most TV Revenue from Subs by 2015 6-2-11.mp4[/flv]

With the advent of high speed broadband and streamed online video, an analyst at Morgan Stanley is predicting that by 2015, more than half of all television revenue will come from subscription fees charged to access it.  Ben Swinburne says the entire television model is being turned on its head by broadband video, with cable, phone and satellite companies scrambling to protect the average $85 Americans spend every month for broadband Internet and television service.

Among Swinburne’s predictions:

• Cable and telephone broadband will increasingly be the delivery platform for television programming with at least 50% of all televisions connected directly to the Internet by 2015;
• Advertising revenue will continue to lose prominence, with networks and programmers seeking direct payments from consumers in the form of monthly subscriptions or pay-per-view to access even traditional over-the-air programming;
• Satellite television is at a distinct disadvantage not offering broadband Internet access, something satellite companies are trying to change;
• Cable companies will face the potential of “online cable” competitors delivering multichannel video packages over broadband connections;
• Content producers, networks, and the cable industry will continue to maintain a united front against a-la-carte television, which could dramatically reduce the revenue the entertainment industry earns from selling multi-hundred channel cable and satellite video packages.

Swinburne speaks with Carol Massar and Matt Miller on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.”  (4 minutes)

The same judge responsible for cutting the legs out from under FilmOn has ruled ivi must cease retransmitting network affiliate stations that make up the bulk of its service.

In a widely-expected ruling, the Hon. Naomi Rice Buchwald, U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York proved to be a sympathetic judge to the interests of America’s largest broadcasting companies by mirroring an earlier decision blocking virtual online cable systems from retransmitting broadcast television programming online.

According to the court’s ruling, ivi doesn’t qualify as a cable system because, in part, it’s too new of a concept.  Buchwald ruled that the definition of a cable system was written in 1976, before the Internet was around to redefine it.  Under the Copyright Act, any cable system can rebroadcast TV signals so long as they pay copyright fees.  This “compulsory license” gives cable systems the right to carry broadcast stations, but only to cable operations subject to oversight by the Federal Communications Commission.

But since the FCC does not regulate Internet video, ivi doesn’t qualify for this provision of the Act, according to Judge Buchwald.

“First, a service providing Internet retransmissions cannot qualify as a cable system,” the ruling said. “Second, the compulsory license for cable systems is intended for localized retransmission services, and cannot be utilized by a service which retransmits broadcast signals nationwide. Third, the rules and regulations of the FCC, even if found not to be binding on a service such as ivi, are integral to the statutory licensing scheme established in 1976.”

Buchwald issued a similar ruling against FilmOn, another virtual online cable system.  Broadcasters sought the same venue to hear their latest case against ivi in hopes the judge would rule similarly, and she did.

As a result, ivi closed down its streaming service this morning pending a planned appeal:

Ivi issued this statement this morning on their website.