WSJ Story On How The Watch ESPN App Will Determine The Future Of Cable/Sat TV

[brandx]

Oh, I 100% agree the gov't does it. But don't act like corporations don't get rid of all the bad, and, generally, executives/management get out with tons. The banking crisis hurt a lot of wall street executives? Or did it hurt middle/low class laborers who had their retirement funds tied up with those firms?

Sure corporations can declare bankruptcy. And they get "punished." I wonder why the law says that individuals who declare bankruptcy can't get rid of their student loan debt. Who wrote those rules I wonder... (speaking of another bubble that's going to burst..)

Except when a corporation gets punished ($20 billion fine for JP morgan for example), Jamie Dimon gets rewarded with a doubling of his salary. Doesn't happen too often for someone who doesn't pay on his student loan.

Obviously, the system is stacked for the rich and powerful - they wrote the laws after all.

But despite what Chicos said, the industry will change when enough customers say it will change. Period. The record companies said they would never offer individual songs off of albums. Until the people decided that they would. The newspaper industry refused to change...until people decided it would.

And the cable/subscription industry WILL NOT change....until people say it IS GOING to change.

There is absolutely no question as to whether it will change or not. The questions are when and how.

[Tugg Speedman]

Except when a corporation gets punished ($20 billion fine for JP morgan for example), Jamie Dimon gets rewarded with a doubling of his salary. Doesn't happen too often for someone who doesn't pay on his student loan.

Obviously, the system is stacked for the rich and powerful - they wrote the laws after all.

Could not resist commenting on this ...

You are correct that JP Morgan paid $25 billion in fines in 2013 and Jamie Dimon gets a 74% raise (and gushing coverage in Davos).

HSBC (Hong Kong Shanghai Bank Corp), now a London based bank, admits it laundered for Al-queda and Mexican drug dealers.
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/report-hsbc-allowed-money-laundering-likely-funded-terror-drugs-889170

Both institutions pay fines and their CEOs are still in place and upset this happened.

Now contrast this to the news today.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/two-bitcoin-exchange-operators-charged-money-laundering-scheme-162637756--finance.html

Two bitcoin exchange operators charged in money laundering scheme

Reuters reports that the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan said in a statement that authorities arrested Charlie Schrem, chief executive officer of the exchange BitInstant.com, on Sunday and Robert Faiella, who ran an underground Bitcoin exchange called BTCKing, on Monday. The two were charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Schrem is also vice president of the main Bitcoin-focused trade group, the Bitcoin Foundation, according to the foundation's website and Schrem's LinkedIn profile. ... In retrospect Charlie's biggest crime was not being CEO of JPM or, at worst, HSBC, where money laundering and other criminal activity is not only encouraged but rewarded with soaring bonuses. The good news is that one can once and for all confirm that when it comes to "Justice" in the US, some - those who deal with legacy status quo mandated and enforced ponzi scheme fiat - are far more equal than anyone who dares to think outside the box.

Added later


http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/17/with-1-5m-led-by-winklevoss-capital-bitinstant-aims-to-be-the-go-to-site-to-buy-and-sell-bitcoins/

BitInstant, which has a full-time staff of 16 led by CEO Charlie Shrem, has emerged as a key player in the nascent Bitcoin market: The company already processes approximately 30 percent of the money going into and out of Bitcoin, and last month alone facilitated 30,000 transactions, the Winklevosses said in a phone call this week. The funding is meant to allow the company to further scale up its staff and product as it angles to become the go-to site for Bitcoin transfers.

The Winklevosses are are twins made famous in the Movie "The Social Network" that sued Zuckerberg saying he stole their idea for Facebook.  The money for Winklevosses Capital came from their settlement with Facebook.

[brandx]

Could not resist commenting on this ...

You are correct that JP Morgan paid $25 billion in fines in 2013 and Jamie Dimon gets a 74% raise (and gushing coverage in Davos).

HSBC (Hong Kong Shanghai Bank Corp), now a London based bank, admits it laundered for Al-queda and Mexican drug dealers.
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/report-hsbc-allowed-money-laundering-likely-funded-terror-drugs-889170

Both institutions pay fines and their CEOs are still in place and upset this happened.

Now contrast this to the news today.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/two-bitcoin-exchange-operators-charged-money-laundering-scheme-162637756--finance.html

Two bitcoin exchange operators charged in money laundering scheme

Reuters reports that the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan said in a statement that authorities arrested Charlie Schrem, chief executive officer of the exchange BitInstant.com, on Sunday and Robert Faiella, who ran an underground Bitcoin exchange called BTCKing, on Monday. The two were charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Schrem is also vice president of the main Bitcoin-focused trade group, the Bitcoin Foundation, according to the foundation's website and Schrem's LinkedIn profile. ... In retrospect Charlie's biggest crime was not being CEO of JPM or, at worst, HSBC, where money laundering and other criminal activity is not only encouraged but rewarded with soaring bonuses. The good news is that one can once and for all confirm that when it comes to "Justice" in the US, some - those who deal with legacy status quo mandated and enforced ponzi scheme fiat - are far more equal than anyone who dares to think outside the box.

Added later


http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/17/with-1-5m-led-by-winklevoss-capital-bitinstant-aims-to-be-the-go-to-site-to-buy-and-sell-bitcoins/

BitInstant, which has a full-time staff of 16 led by CEO Charlie Shrem, has emerged as a key player in the nascent Bitcoin market: The company already processes approximately 30 percent of the money going into and out of Bitcoin, and last month alone facilitated 30,000 transactions, the Winklevosses said in a phone call this week. The funding is meant to allow the company to further scale up its staff and product as it angles to become the go-to site for Bitcoin transfers.

The Winklevosses are are twins made famous in the Movie "The Social Network" that sued Zuckerberg saying he stole their idea for Facebook.  The money for Winklevosses Capital came from their settlement with Facebook.

Guess Bitcoin needs to get some of their executives hired by the gov't 

[ChicosBailBonds]

Thought some of you might find this interesting.  Basically a quick snapshot into how long the rights are tied up for.  He who has the rights, controls his destiny.  Most of the big ones are gone, tied up for 5 to 10 years.  That's a long way out.

[Tugg Speedman]

Thought some of you might find this interesting.  Basically a quick snapshot into how long the rights are tied up for.  He who has the rights, controls his destiny.  Most of the big ones are gone, tied up for 5 to 10 years.  That's a long way out.

Any of these have live streaming that does not require a cable/sat subscription (so no watch ESPN). Any considering seperate streaming/digital rights.

[DegenerateDish]

Some might laugh, but we'll have a good litmus test forthcoming with WWE Network.

[Tugg Speedman]

Some might laugh, but we'll have a good litmus test forthcoming with WWE Network.

Why?

[DegenerateDish]

Why?

Read previous thread on it.

[77ncaachamps]

Thinking mobile...unless you have a tablet, battery power and LIVE streaming are problems for handhelds like smart phones.

I can't imagine watching NFL games on a Sunday on my iPhone without having it plugged in.

[Tugg Speedman]

Thinking mobile...unless you have a tablet, battery power and LIVE streaming are problems for handhelds like smart phones.

I can't imagine watching NFL games on a Sunday on my iPhone without having it plugged in.

Get apple TV for $50 or Chromecast for $35 (one-time cost) and in about three minutes you can put it up on any HDTV

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Thought some of you might find this interesting.  Basically a quick snapshot into how long the rights are tied up for.  He who has the rights, controls his destiny.  Most of the big ones are gone, tied up for 5 to 10 years.  That's a long way out.

#1 You are absolutely right that there has been a lot of money tied up into the infrastructure, so the current providers (both networks and cable providers) are not likely to make any changes easily.

#2 So. What. 

#3 GM made crapty, oversized cars in the 70/80's, and they would have loved to keep selling them to Americans over and over. They had a lot of money tied up in their production, design and sales networks. Unfortunately for GM, when Japanese manufacturers made better products, people quit buying poorly made, oversized cars from GM and GM was FORCED to adapt.

#4 There is not an apples to apples comparison for the cable/content industry, but history is littered with companies who evolved with technology and the marketplace, and the ones that didn't were swallowed up and pushed out of the marketplace. Remember when people used to pay a lot of money for long distance?

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Chicos



What exactly do you do?   

[ChicosBailBonds]

Except when a corporation gets punished ($20 billion fine for JP morgan for example), Jamie Dimon gets rewarded with a doubling of his salary. Doesn't happen too often for someone who doesn't pay on his student loan.

Obviously, the system is stacked for the rich and powerful - they wrote the laws after all.

But despite what Chicos said, the industry will change when enough customers say it will change. Period. The record companies said they would never offer individual songs off of albums. Until the people decided that they would. The newspaper industry refused to change...until people decided it would.

And the cable/subscription industry WILL NOT change....until people say it IS GOING to change.

There is absolutely no question as to whether it will change or not. The questions are when and how.

A lot of that seems to be going on.  Can you imagine in corporate America if a website or program was handled so comically bad like ACA was deployed?  Would that person still be in a job?  Absolutely not, yet that person is still in charge today.  WOW   

People can say they want to change it all they want, it still comes down to the cost of the goods being sold.  Say I want a gold toilet and everyone else in America wants a gold toilet.  Is it going to happen?  No.  Why?  Because the cost of gold.   I'm sure many people want to pay a lot less for all their programming, but it costs a ton of money to make that programming (X multiples what it costs to make a record which is why it is still the absolute dumbest comparison people make).   If you want programming costs to go down, that's fine....lower sports salaries, lower sports fees, lower actor fees, union fees, production fees, etc.   Let me know how that goes for everyone.

The only reason some older programming is available at cut rate prices on Hulu or Netflix is because those creators of that content have CHOSEN to do so because they have already monetized most of it upfront.  If they see too many people gravitating toward that model, they will either charge those distributors a TON more to carry it, or they will cut their production costs and provide cheaper content.

End of the day, they aren't going to walk away from the money they need to produce what they do.  Today they are getting most from cable\satellite\telco and gravy on top for them from OTT.   Most of the monetization that carries their water is done up front.  They aren't going to change dollars for dimes.  They can't, they are on the hook for billions and billions for the next 10 to 15 years.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Any of these have live streaming that does not require a cable/sat subscription (so no watch ESPN). Any considering seperate streaming/digital rights.

Nope.  Why would they?  What would they trade dollars for dimes?  More importantly, why would any television distributor that is forced to pay ESPN, Fox, NBC, etc hundreds of millions (sometimes a billion +) allow them to do that?

Can you imagine Comcast saying, "Gee ESPN, we'll pay you $1 billion a year to carry ESPN for our customers which we will have to pass on those costs to them so we can stay in business, but you go ahead and sell it directly to a customer if you wish so that you can make extra money while we sit here holding this debt"

[ChicosBailBonds]

Some might laugh, but we'll have a good litmus test forthcoming with WWE Network.

Not a real litmus test......unless.


It's a real litmus test if the distributors say bye bye.  That remains to be seen.  It will be interesting to watch.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Chicos



What exactly do you do?  

I'm responsible for several billion in revenue....work 7 days a week, typically 14 to 16 hour days, but plenty of great perks as well.  Take some time to unwind with some college hoops each day here.  Need something, otherwise people die young in this gig.  When some of you are tucked in nicely at night, I may be on a conference call at 3:00am.  Its certainly not what Keefe and others have done through their lives, but I have no qualms spending some time in enjoyment throughout the day to stay even considering the stress, hours, etc that having $ billions on your head each day requires.  Too many visits to the Cardiologist, etc in the last 24 months....looking forward to the next chapter

[brandx]

I'm responsible for several billion in revenue....work 7 days a week, typically 14 to 16 hour days, but plenty of great perks as well.  Take some time to unwind with some college hoops each day here.  Need something, otherwise people die young in this gig.  When some of you are tucked in nicely at night, I may be on a conference call at 3:00am.  Its certainly not what Keefe and others have done through their lives, but I have no qualms spending some time in enjoyment throughout the day to stay even considering the stress, hours, etc that having $ billions on your head each day requires.  Too many visits to the Cardiologist, etc in the last 24 months....looking forward to the next chapter

Glad someone is out there doing all of the work. You're living proof of the saying that in Europe they work to live, here we live to work.

Luckily for me, I have gone with the European model. I don't need the 'fulfillment' that work brings - and as long as I am OK financially.... quitting work was one of the best life decisions I have made - good job and great boss not withstanding.

[brandx]

A lot of that seems to be going on.  Can you imagine in corporate America if a website or program was handled so comically bad like ACA was deployed?  Would that person still be in a job?  Absolutely not, yet that person is still in charge today.  WOW   

People can say they want to change it all they want, it still comes down to the cost of the goods being sold.  Say I want a gold toilet and everyone else in America wants a gold toilet.  Is it going to happen?  No.  Why?  Because the cost of gold.  

ACA was deployed with similar problems as most new gov't programs have - happened with Medicare and medicare expansion and it happened with social Security. It was made much worse by one faction of the gov't trying to sabotage it at both the federal and state levels.

As far as gold toilets - if people refused to buy any traditional toilets - then the model would change. There would be gold-painted toilets and gold-plated toilets, gold-speckled toilets and brass toilets, etc. And all of those companies that stayed with the status quo would either be out of business or selling new toilets. The companies that had long term contracts for white ceramic would adjust or die.

[Tugg Speedman]

Nope.  Why would they?  What would they trade dollars for dimes?  More importantly, why would any television distributor that is forced to pay ESPN, Fox, NBC, etc hundreds of millions (sometimes a billion +) allow them to do that?

Can you imagine Comcast saying, "Gee ESPN, we'll pay you $1 billion a year to carry ESPN for our customers which we will have to pass on those costs to them so we can stay in business, but you go ahead and sell it directly to a customer if you wish so that you can make extra money while we sit here holding this debt"

Why would they?  Because the current distribution model will not exist in 10 to 15 years.  It will all be digital. 

If they want to give away the first mover advantage to someone else, they risk this business being taken away from them all together.  You think brick & mortar retailers that scoffed at Amazon in the late 1990s asking "why" and "how are they going to make money" think it was smart to ignore online early on?

The "don't move or change because we have it good" mentally is exactly how new entrants come in disrupt and take it way from established businesses.

So yes, you don't get into digital because it lucrative now (and it is not), you get into it because that is the future.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

I'm responsible for several billion in revenue....work 7 days a week, typically 14 to 16 hour days, but plenty of great perks as well.  Take some time to unwind with some college hoops each day here.  Need something, otherwise people die young in this gig.  When some of you are tucked in nicely at night, I may be on a conference call at 3:00am.  Its certainly not what Keefe and others have done through their lives, but I have no qualms spending some time in enjoyment throughout the day to stay even considering the stress, hours, etc that having $ billions on your head each day requires.  Too many visits to the Cardiologist, etc in the last 24 months....looking forward to the next chapter

unwind a little more bro, and get the joke from the picture.  I don't want to give you the gripper.

[brandx]

Why would they?  Because the current distribution model will not exist in 10 to 15 years.  It will all be digital. 

If they want to give away the first mover advantage to someone else, they risk this business being taken away from them all together.  You think brick & mortar retailers that scoffed at Amazon in the late 1990s asking "why" and "how are they going to make money" think it was smart to ignore online early on?

The "don't move or change because we have it good" mentally is exactly how new entrants come in disrupt and take it way from established businesses.

So yes, you don't get into digital because it lucrative now (and it is not), you get into it because that is the future.

You make me feel stupid when you post what I was trying to say much better than I do.

[Lennys Tap]

I'm responsible for several billion in revenue....work 7 days a week, typically 14 to 16 hour days, but plenty of great perks as well.  Take some time to unwind with some college hoops each day here.  Need something, otherwise people die young in this gig.  When some of you are tucked in nicely at night, I may be on a conference call at 3:00am.  Its certainly not what Keefe and others have done through their lives, but I have no qualms spending some time in enjoyment throughout the day to stay even considering the stress, hours, etc that having $ billions on your head each day requires.  Too many visits to the Cardiologist, etc in the last 24 months....looking forward to the next chapter

16 hours of work, 2 hours on Scoop or watching hoops, 15 minutes with the wife, kids, friends, 45 minutes showering, brushing teeth and eating, 5 hours of sleep. Repeat 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I'd eliminate the personal hygiene, eating and the time with family and friends for that 6th hour of sleep. Anything less and you won't be able to give those 112 hours a week that any employer deserves. Balance and priorities are tantamount, after all.

[4everwarriors]

Go grain free. You won't have to take the time to run to the croakers.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

ACA was deployed with similar problems as most new gov't programs have - happened with Medicare and medicare expansion and it happened with social Security. It was made much worse by one faction of the gov't trying to sabotage it at both the federal and state levels.

I'm not surprised with the website we got and the problem is the bidding process.  If anyone has had to bid on government work the process is open and fairly straightforward, but you pretty much know up front they're going with the lowest bidder (unless your a sole source supplier and then they want to audit you to make sure you're not charging more than 10-15% "fee" which is your profit.)  It's an online process and you get the see the winning bid and who won and often the low bidder is someone who doesn't entirely know what they're doing and the "accidently" underbid and they government get stuck with low bid quality.

My company has lost bids before and the government came begging back to us despite a much higher price since no one else made parts that functioned properly. 

[WellsstreetWanderer]

Except in the case of ACA the bid went to a college roommaye