Big Media’s Q4 earnings season pretty much wrapped up last week. And the most startling takeaway is how quickly moguls have overcome their fears about the lousy economy and pay TV cord-cutting. That was becoming a big concern three months ago. Execs including Time Warner Cable’s Glenn Britt and Dish Network’s Charlie Ergen warned that cash-strapped subscribers would ditch pay TV and watch shows for free from an antenna – and perhaps a low-cost Internet video service such as Netflix or Hulu Plus – if program prices continued to soar faster than inflation. The anxiety was so palpable that I wondered whether execs were angling to use the economy as a scapegoat for some of their own bad decisions. But in the Q4 conference calls I listened to over the last few weeks, moguls returned to their usual assurances that all is well. They also seem to think that means the pay TV oligopoly can continue to charge consumers higher prices. ”We’re not seeing some great interest in cord-cutting because I think, generally, consumers are happy with the quality and the variety (of channels) that they’re getting, and the price-to-value relationship is generally good,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said. He and others signaled that they’re in an arms race to deliver hits: Viacom said its production costs will grow by low double digit percentages for the rest of its fiscal year. Discovery said expenditures would grow by high single digit percentages in ... Read More »Kim Yoon jin Kirsten Dunst Krista Allen Kristanna Loken Kristen Bell Kristin Cavallari
I agree with the point that the economy improving has a lot to do with less people cutting the cord. If I ended up with going to a streaming only option, like Netflix, I would be missing out on too much content. I’ll stick with my DISH services; I have a ton of content, all of the shows I watch and the best DVR around. One of the draws to Netflix, in my opinion, is the on demand type of programming. Now if you know how to use the DVR correctly, it is exactly the same thing. My supervisor at DISH was discussing the other day that Netflix was bringing back the DVD by mail option, but that they scrapped the idea of getting video games.
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