Welcome to the broadband and cable news roundup, Hump Day edition.
Googleblogs that it's "definitely committed" to bringing its fiber-fed 1Gbit/s data service and subscription TV bundle to homes in north and south Kansas City, Mo., in a second phase that will follow the initial rollout in Kansas City, Kan., and central Kansas City, Mo. Google didn't say when part two will get underway, but like the first round, it will also call on people within a given "fiberhood" (areas with 250 to 1,500 homes) to pre-register so they can not just qualify for Google Fiber, but determine their place in line. Fiberhood pre-registration goals are separated into three tiers (5 percent, 10 percent and 25 percent), and are determined by how dense or rural the area is and how complicated the builds are in terms of time, fiber and labor. Google says 40 fiberhoods have already qualified for service, and noted that people who spend US$10 to pre-register but don't qualify will get refunds. (See Who's Rallying for Google Fiber?, Google Fiber's Drive for Density and Google Fiber Bundles TV, Shuns Data Caps.)
Skewering NBC's tape-delayed television coverage of some of the most popular summer Olympics events has almost become an Olympic sport of its own. It's become fashionable, anyway. TechCrunch points out that someone's gone to the trouble to create a fake Twitter account using the @NBCDelayed handle to poke fun. At last check, it's got more than 24,400 followers. One sample tweet: "BREAKING: Roman Emperor Theodosius bans Olympic Games, NBC delay to catch up shortly. #394AD" Ouch! (See Access Doubts Dent NBCU's Olympics Ambitions .)
The Onion, meanwhile, showed some compassion for how NBC is struggling to mesh the old world TV model with its wall-to-wall broadband video coverage of the games. The headline: "NBC On Olympics Coverage: 'Sorry We Didn't Alter The Laws Of Space And Time To Accommodate People's Schedules'."
Advanced ad systems vendor BlackArrow Inc. will try to help pay-TV operators push the TV Everywhere model forward with the launch of a subscriber information service (SIS) that lets operators pitch addressable (i.e. targeted) video ads across a range of screens, including TVs, tablets and smartphones. The vendor, which counts Comcast Corp. among its backers, says the new SIS can address linear and on-demand video feeds, as well as interactive advertising.
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