Google Fiber Expands to Southern Cities

When we last considered Google Fiber, the uber-fast network raised eyebrows with its initial foray into Kansas City. It was generally assumed KC was the petri dish for a much larger experiment from Mountain View's scientists, engineers, and marketing teams. With the recent announcement that the Fiber product will expand into mid-sized Southern cities, Google moves into its next expansion phase for its telecom initiative. Theverge.com, and other sources, reported the news today.

The four cities -- Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham -- make sense for Fiber. They contain a mix of data-hungry enterprises, young tech-friendly populations, cooperative local and state governments, and economically-defined communities. They also are somewhat under the media radar, with the possible exception of Nashville's music crowd. That arrangement suits Google's experimental purpose, which is to roll out and learn about Fiber far from Silicon Valley's tech sharks or New York's insatiable gossip machine.

In a world where speed rules, Google Fiber's capability becomes very alluring for households, institutions, and businesses. And what Google is offering is completely fair and within the Net Neutrality guidelines that Comcast and other cable providers are openly fighting. Whether one thinks it's wise for the world's largest search provider to rule the pipeline into physical structures is another story.

Comcast Lobbyist Hints Firm May Resurrect Data Caps

David Cohen
(Image: corporate.comcast.com)

When we last left Comcast's superstar lobbyist David Cohen, he was defending the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger to during a rubber stamp FCC public hearing. While Washington may offer low-hanging fruit, Comcast's front man knows Wall Street can occasionally offer stronger resistance to his smoothly presented advocacy. That assertion suggests Mr. Cohen may have to speak some truth, although only to big-time financial specialists and certainly not to the average cable rate payer.

According to a blog post in siliconvalley.com, Cohen spoke to an assortment of money men and women earlier this week at a New York business event. What he did not mention to the people's representatives he more candidly noted to the assembled, well-connected group. During his remarks, Cohen predicted that it would only take five years for Comcast to reinstate data usage caps on their millions of accounts.

As siliconvalley.com's personal technology writer Troy Wolverton observed, Comcast is a wolf among lambs in the world of data caps. Some years ago, Comcast instituted data caps on its customers and insisted everyone was treated equally. Well, that wasn't quite the case, and Comcast had to remove its data usage choke points. Currently, Mr. Cohen and Comcast would have the gullible believe their corporate intent is to "improve service," "foster innovation," and presumably any other shallow, palatable buzzword suitable for a 15-second sound bite. It's far more likely that data caps will be spun as another way decreased, more expensive service equals progress.

Obama Money Man Gives Pro-Comcast Merger Testimony to US Senate

David Cohen
(Image: corporate.comcast.com)

The name "David Cohen" may not be a household word. However, the company he represents -- Comcast -- is in more households than nearly any other cable television provider. Cohen recently testified on behalf of his employer during Senate hearings on the Comcast-Time Warner Cable (TWC) merger.

While many US mainstream media outlets reported the proceedings in a desultory way, only the British Financial Times bothered to connect the insider dots related to Cohen. Reporter Matthew Garrahan wrote that Cohen, a Comcast executive vice president, happens to be one of President Obama's financial "bundlers." He also hosted a fundraiser for 44 at the EVP's home.

US Senator Al Franken (D-MN)
(Image: wikipedia.com)

Comcast and Obama are cozy bedfellows. The FT noted that, since 1989, Comcast's employees and PAC gave more campaign contributions to President Obama than any other politician. It should be noted that Comcast and NBC merged during the Obama presidential years. Today's Comcast-TWC shotgun marriage hearings in the Senate notably did not provoke any substantive pushback from the solons, except from the former entertainer and current senator from Minnesota, Al Franken. Unsurprisingly, Cohen did not think the merger would lead to any consumer savings. However, he did chat up the potential for "innovation" that the Comcast-Time Warner Cable smerge would supposedly generate.

Whenever a media or tech company uses "innovation" as their justification for rate or price increases, one should be suspicious. I'm curious just what "innovations" Comcast could reliably project as a result of the merger. Just don't expect the US Senate -- and certainly not the Obama Administration -- to ask that question.

Netflix, Hulu Viewers' Device, Programming Choices; Apple's TV Strategy

A recent Nielsen survey of Netflix and Hulu customers revealed some interesting consumer choices. The AP story, picked up by the San Jose Mercury News, found that "more Netflix users are watching video on the TVs rather than their computers," often using game box consoles as their connection.

Hulu clients skew heavily toward computer use. They also tend to watch TV programs. That contrasts with the Netflix crowd, which tends to prefer viewing movies. (The image shows Hulu's icon for its desktop application.)

Now, if Apple acquires Hulu, that act would imply a major Apple push into the television distribution market. A computer-driven audience would play into the Apple plan. TV also happens to play better on mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, including the iPhone. Apple's bete noire in this hypothetical strategy would be the cost of bandwidth, which would be controlled by the phone duopoly and cable providers such as Comcast (which happens to own NBC).

Ex-NPR Boss Lands On Her Feet At NBC

Remember Vivian Schiller? She was NPR's former boss who fell on her sword in the wake of a network fundraiser soliciting donations by characterizing the Tea Party as racist. That was in March.

Fast forward to June. Presto! Schiller has a new job. She's NBC's (read Comcast) "chief digital officer." The Washington Post version of events, taken from an AP story, provides the bare bones on Schiller's adios from the unemployment line.

What's got NBC/Comcast's heart palpitating so wildly? NBC President Steve Capus talked about Schiller's skill in building a "multi-platform organization." Oh, yes, he "raved about NPR's tablet app..." I see: she understands how to appeal to a liberal bourgeois audience.

What's ironic is that NBC News "has new digital properties in...theGrio.com...a site devoted to news particularly affecting black Americans."

The odds on Schiller hiring Juan Williams to be a commentator on theGrio.com start at a million to one.

The Comcast Empire Strikes Back

The enormous financial and popular success of Netflix's movie and TV streaming finally roused the ire of cable companies. Comcast finally struck back at Netflix's most sensitive area -- low-cost distribution into viewers' homes and computers. This commercial struggle is just warming up, and promises to be a slugfest along the lines of King Kong vs. Godzilla.

The corporate behemoths lining up their K Street dream teams would headline a Fortune (name your number) list. Hedge fund darlings Google and Apple, investment banks, and telecoms will step into the struggle. Media black hats, such as Comcast, Disney, and Fox will join in the fray. (The mainstream media's point of view on this conflict should be a fascinating study.) The feds will have their say. Oh, yeah, there's Netflix, playing the aggrieved party angle for all the sympathy it can muster. (I don't buy the strong version of Netflix's "purity" in this tale.)

Comcast's position is a delicate one. The Comcast/NBC merger has not yet been consummated. A number of observers found the concept of a big-time, monopolisitc cable player owning one of the major networks as inevitably inimical to unencumbered access to consumers. Of course, no cable firm wants, encourages, or welcomes competition. The success of Netflix's streaming product has shown that the public prefers entertainment choice to the free crap, subscription plan junk, or hardly better pay-per-view movies cable providers shove down their captive audiences' throats.

What's worse, from the cable providers' perspective, is that Netflix isn't paying very much for this access into people's homes, computers, and phones.

As a consequence, the Comcast empire has challenged Netflix by charging a "toll" for access. Zero Hedge, which took the story from Bloomberg, provides some of the dirt. The post from Nikki Finke adds some legal background; the reader comments are often thoughtful and often appear knowledgeable.

This story will be a long, complicated one. It's a story that will require some diligence to understand, as the media will have a profound stake in its outcome. That assertion suggests a reader has to question every point of view, check every fact, anticipate sudden shifts in declared positions, and have a taste for human weakness. The reward will be a heightened understanding of how we will obtain useful or trival information, and how much we'll pay for the privilege.

The chart above shows the value of Netflix common stock since January 2010; the chart on the right compares Comcast (blue) versus Netflix (green) since the beginning of this year.