Cablenut's blog

I have been asked several times since the Olympics started and we at OMI keep hearing about the delays in the rollout of the new studio, but the reason for the delays.

Regulatory?
Bad electrical situation?
Michael Powell won't leave his office?

Cablenut

It would seem that Comcast is unhappy to have someone bumping into their turf.

In a Feb. 12 letter to the commission, Sanford Inouye, Comcast Cable government affairs director in Beaverton, wrote that his company wanted the proposed Verizon Northwest franchise to be held to the same standard as the 15-year pact granted in 1999 to Comcast’s predecessors, TCI and AT&T.

The sad part is that they are probably right.

Cable franchise agreements are spelled out to the letter, and they are adjudicated and funded based upon the assumption of a (relatively) captive audience. This allows the term "Franchise" to be used. Now MACC, representing 11 cities, is considering tossing a variable into the mix, one that could considerably upset the delicate fiscal equations that allow for *any* franchise to meet the requirements of it's shareholders, and return a valuable product.

The thing is, delivering cable tv is expensive, and Comcast is only into the 3rd year of recouping its multi-billion dollar investment on infrastructure upgrades. If another group swoops in and scoops up 1/4 of the customers, they wouldn't be able to afford the payments on the investment, and soon, we will find ourselves with a different cable operator. Those upgrades cost Big Money, and they should be able to pay off that investment without having to worry about another company getting a "sweetheart" deal.

I should point out that it was these upgrades that have allowed Comcast to expand its offerings into telephone, HD services, and extremely high speed data. All of these have been very, very good for the customer, provided the customer is willing to pay for those services. If you want to see how a NON-rebuilt system functions, go on out to Hood River and take a peek, or Ashland, or Florence. All of them are non-rebuild systems. Data is slower, breakdowns more frequent, and the offerings significantly less robust.

Now, I *do* support Comcast in this fight, and I'll tell you why:

Comcast has a HUGE call center in Beaverton. 350 people earn their living there, and most of them make a decent wage. Unless I see another 350-person call center opening up in this area to support the Verizon product, I am afraid that I will be unable to support them. I have to go with providing local jobs for folks.

I don't think that Verizon is going to be pulling any of their support contracts from India and reallocating them to Beaverton anytime soon.

Call me a pessimist.

This weekend, you will find Cablenut, Lynn and the kidlets at my favorite sci fi convention, Orycon. A thousand geeks talking about everything. Literally everything.

Also, I wish my Father-in-law, Ken a very happy birthday on Saturday. He is in town today, but breezing out on his birthday. I truly enjoy sitting in the TV room harping on politics, ya old bolshevik ;-) Happy Birthday, Ken!

UPDATE from L: What are the election night coverage plans? I'm not asking for top secret info, just the public stuff. I mean, you wanna give me that stuff, fine... Also I'm lifting the anonymous comment restriction, but we will be policing this thread more tightly than usual. Keep it on topic and keep the politics out. We're going for coverage discussion.

Ok, folks...election season is upon us.

We are seeing ads go out en masse to the peeps, and I am opening up this thread to allow folks to comment on what they think is weak/strong, anomolies with political ads, and comments from the stations that are running them.

Feel free to include media coverage of campaign issues, but we are establishing two rules, on the flip:

Summer is coming to a close, and that means that the political season is upon us. Feast on some timely examinations of smoking in Portland bars, and the efforts to enact bans on same. Howsabout some Gubernatorial fun and games? Or maybe your tastes run to to the slightly more scandalous?

In any case, bon apetit! May the happy, politics

Its supposed to be 95 this weekend, and I already feel a hot wind blowing in from the east.

Enjoy this last weekend of summer break, folks.

< Cablenut sez: I am retracting my statements. It is irrational for me to expect coverage of every event out there on the news. Mea Culpa for being a bonehead.

Here is the post-saved for all of eternity, if only to reinforce my humility>

So I smoke. Bad Cablenut. Bad Cablenut.

I am outside smoking last night, when what do I hear, but sirens! LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of sirens. All over the place. When one ends, I hear another pick up further away. Its obviously coming close by (we live in the Hawthorne neighborhood).

This goes on through 2 cigs. I try to bring up the police scanner, and it's broken (shame on Oregonlive...its been linked everywhere to exclusion of all other online police scanners.)

[Edited to add the date to the title.--L]

I know that there aren't many local angles to this story, but holy cow...all JonBenet all the time. Blab, blab, blab. Ok...bad guy, girl killed 10 years ago. We get the picture. I am a little curious about how the peace accord is working out in Lebanon, but with all the coverage of JonBenet, I suppose they called a halt to *everything* else in the world, right? Right?

Locally: I wanna know if folks are gonna go see snakes on a plane, and whose coverage of this pop phonemenon is better (the movie is reportedly *painful* to watch.)

Lynn now: A Faithful Correspondent calls this "the power of poor editing in the newsroom":

On the other hand, this does explain recent Ron Howard movies.

I am going to point y'all to the following entry at IMDB:

YouTube Rescues Dead TV Series

"If network TV doesn't embrace the Internet as both a place to launch and test shows but also as a place where shows can live, they're going to fall further and further behind," he said.

Its happening already. People are looking at news, information and entertainment in new ways that is going to massively skewer the way ratings and book are done.

One of the few local drive-time call-in hosts has been moved...Ahhh! There, you are, Tom! 11pm to 3am. Now they get to move that paradigm of conservative thought, Victoria Taft to your drivetime slot. Oh, and some guy outta Sag Harbor, New York Jay Severin (who lied about getting a Pulitzer) has been put in Victoria's old spot. After all, who knows local stuff like a fella from NY state?