Thousands of Charter Communications Inc. , Cable One Inc. and Dish Network LLC (Nasdaq: DISH) subscribers missed Tuesday's Minnesota Twins vs. New York Yankees game, after the pay-TV providers resisted attempts by Fox Sports North to hike its license fee for adding 34 games to its schedule.
Making guesses about the number of American "couch potatoes" that will cut the cord on pay TV is a business for Toronto research firm Convergence Consulting Group, which estimates that 2 million U.S. households will abandon pay TV for Web video by the end of 2011. (See Survey: 7% of Pay-TV Subs Will Cut Cord.)
Netflix's licensing deal for Mad Men leaves me wondering how many people will watch the streaming video version of Mad Men on Netflix versus watching the show on cable VOD. Unfortunately, there is no public data available from Nielsen or VOD measurement firm Rentrak that details how many cable subscribers watch Mad Men on VOD. I'm not a fan of the show, but just discovered FiOS has several HD episodes of Mad Men available on demand. Each episode contains a 30-second preroll ad (which you can skip) from BMW.
Given how long it's going to be before the next season of Mad Men comes out, this might be a good opportunity for the show to find new fans. They'll now have time to catch up on those past seasons... if they get Netflix, of course. JB
Netflix's licensing deal for Mad Men leaves me wondering how many people will watch the streaming video version of Mad Men on Netflix versus watching the show on cable VOD. Unfortunately, there is no public data available from Nielsen or VOD measurement firm Rentrak that details how many cable subscribers watch Mad Men on VOD. I'm not a fan of the show, but just discovered FiOS has several HD episodes of Mad Men available on demand. Each episode contains a 30-second preroll ad (which you can skip) from BMW.