The RIAA – No More Cuddly Puppies

Brian Biggs has an “article” up over on BBspot on the RIAA’s new mission statement and innovative communications strategies. Instead of fostering a supportive climate, Brian suggests the RIAA is codifying a different, less cuddly approach: Our mission is to maximize hatred for the music industry by using creative legal and innovative technological methods which … Read more

Network DVR Killed (In Court)

10 months after heading to court, Cablevision’s network DVR concept has been killed. No surprise here, though we may see follow-on court action and/or a tweaking of their proposed implementation… By contrast, Time Warner has successfully launched a head end-based service (Start Over) by sharing revenue with the networks. Multichannel News writes: The U.S. District … Read more

Verizon FiOS Q&A

John Czwartacki, of Verizon’s Policy Blog, dropped us a line asking if the writers and readers of ZNF would like to participate in a FiOS Q&A session:

Next Friday, I’ll conduct and post a conversation with one of the behind the scenes brains here at Verizon. Our first victim candidate is Brian Whitton, executive director of access network design and integration for Verizon. Brian’s title is just a formality — he’s the guy who knows about speed, what it means for the end user, and the innovations we’re deploying right now that make our fiber optic broadband to homes the autobahn of the Internet. Anyway, here’s your chance to ask an expert about G-PON, MoCA, and how Verizon hopes to transform the customer experience with the fiber we’re placing all the way into people’s homes.

You can never have too many friends in the blogosphere (even if they might not have appreciated my last post), so of course we have questions…. hopefully you do too. If so, please drop them in our comment area or theirs.

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AppleTV is NOT a DVR

AppleInsider quotes ThinkEquity analyst Jonathan Hoopes: Apple TV can, in our opinion, be easily turned into a DVR with little or no hardware modification and a software upgrade If we define a DVR as a device that time shifts broadcast content (I do), the current Apple TV will never be a digital video recorder. A … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs. Why The Home Phone Isn’t Better: Connected Home 2 Go DivX Goes To Wall Street: Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection Bye Bye, Rabbit Ears: Connected Home 2 Go The Best Tech You Don’t Get To See: Connected Home 2 Go

Boob Tube-onomics

The latest study out of Nielsen Research (also covered by MultiChannel News) has a raft of interesting TV statistics. But since we all know how deceiving numbers can be, I thought I’d add a little context to the facts and figures. For your reading pleasure…nielsen.jpg

Boob Tube-onomics

There are an average of 111.4 million TV homes in the United States for the 2006-07 TV season.
Given a US population of around 300 Million, with an average household of 2.5 people (see below), this means that roughly 93% of American homes have TVs.

The average U.S. TV home has 2.5 people and 2.8 television sets.
The primary TV in consumer homes was bought at an average price of $783. Not cheap, but even doubled or tripled it’s a lot less expensive than .5 of a kid for your typical couple.

28% of U.S. TV homes have digital cable.
More than half of cable subscribers to the top two cable companies get digital services: 52% of Comcast subscribers and 54% of Time Warner subscribers.

More after the jump…

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The Week In Review: Media Extenders

Netgear Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000) The EVA8000 was released this week for $399. Jeremy Toeman over at LiveDigitally spent about ten hours with it (and shot 20 minutes of video) before flying out of town. I played with the 1080p Digital Entertainer at CES and thought it looked promising. Apple TV Apple TV ($299) is … Read more