Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Morgan Housel: Personal Finance Philosophies

-  Matt Taibbi: The Echo Chamber Era. "...audiences were asked for a time to care about certain thing as if their lives depended on it, then just as quickly asked to forget the issues ever came up. And they wonder why people feel manipulated." Don't trust China the media. China the media is asshole!

- NBC is shutting down NBC Sports Network. The NHL and other sports will be heading to the USA Network.

- A week into his administration and already Joe Biden has Canada ready to "go to war" against the US. The peace-loving, gentle, liberal Canadians. 

- There is real unrest in Russia. 

Brave New Streaming World

The first cracks in the traditional cable model was when HBO decided to offer a streaming only platform called HBO Go. It then followed that up with HBO Now for people who aren't connected to a cable company. The cableco umbilical cord was cut and suddenly people getting HBO Go, Netflix and YouTube (substitute Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus to mix and match a package that's right for you) had plenty of content and no desire to continue with a $100+ cable bill. Cutting the Cord suddenly became cutting edge and fashionable.

Then came the "skinny" packages. Sling TV starts with 30 channels for just $20 per month. DirecTV Now offers 60+ channels for $35 per month and they just signed up over 1 million subscribers making them the 3rd largest OTT (over the top) streaming service behind Sling TV and PlayStation Vue. But that too is just the beginning because even in 30 channel packages and especially in 60 channel packages there will be channels a subscriber won't watch and will chaff at paying for.

For example - if I'm a liberal I might not particularly like the fact that I have to subsidize Fox News. Conversely a conservative may feel the same about MSNBC or even CNN. Further levels of choice will be demanded.

Which brings me to this interesting case - Wave Broadband vs Comcast's NBC Sports Network. The case basically questions Comcast's "packaging" requirements and a Wave Broadband win may open the door for further a la carte content choices. Wave actually has very little to lose as they already charge their subscriber just the content costs as a pass-through. Wave's business is really in providing the broadband pipe.

We live in interest content times and the times are a changing.

NBC Sports and NASCAR

It was announced that NBC Sports will pay $4.4 billion over 10 years for the rights to ESPN's entire NASCAR package and half of Turner's 6 races. When I read that my first thought was that NBC was trying to make their NBC Sports Network channel (formerly Versus) more appealing once a la carte cable pricing becomes a reality.

Today if someone allowed you to just keep and pay for the channels you want and not be forced into big bundles or tiers - would you keep the NBC Sports Network? My guess is that because of this new deal in the future NASCAR fans will keep that channel (over ESPN even), NHL fans will keep the channel (again even maybe over ESPN who doesn't have any NHL games), bicycle racing fans (Tour de France) and fans of the Dan Patrick Show will also have reason to be paying the monthly fee for the NBC Sports Network. And those are some of the most loyal and fervent fans around.

ESPN meanwhile just added Keith Olbermann while NBC Sports Network countered by adding NASCAR. The choice is getting clearer every day.