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Blockbuster 'mystery partner' in studios' cable deal?

So, Blockbuster is talking with Viacom about the media company’s plan to roll out a new premium cable movie channel.  The allure is digital. 

Big-blue-and-yellow would like to have the exclusive digital rights to programming on the channel, following Netflix’s lead (doesn’t Blockbuster always?) making exclusive deals for DVD movie distribution.

In this case, Blockbuster is looking a few years ahead, buying into the idea that most media consumption is going digital, i.e. downloading.  And if BB has the digital rights for streaming and downloading, it will have a competitive advantage.

Maybe. 

Blockbuster seems eager to spend money.  A few weeks ago, it was an audacious bid to buy limping Circuit City; now it’s offering to put money into a deal that is ‘iffy’ at best. 

It won’t happen unless the cable companies pay for it and then re-sell it to their subscribers.  It’s worth asking whether, if the world is going digital, and folks are getting savvy about streaming and downloading, will people be willing to pay for what they can get free, either legally or not? (Horton Hears a Who just showed up on Bittorrent sites.)

Blockbuster probably will find a warm reception from the Viacom people.  After all, the idea of another pay channel has limited appeal to at least some cable operators.  And one analyst, Rich Greenfield at Pali Research things Blockbuster is one of the last companies which should be interested in this deal.

CBS layoffs bad news for the Net

CBS has swung the scythe at its o-and-o TV outlets.  Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Detroit, and possibly more.

    •    Detroit: Sports producer Toby Cunningham leaves Channel 50
    •    San Francisco: REPORTING VETS AMONG 14 LAID OFF AT CBS'S KPIX
    •    Denver: AT LEAST 6 GONE FROM CBS'S KCNC DENVER
    •    Boston: CBS FIRES 30 EMPLOYEES AT WBZ BOSTON
    •    New York City: 2 CORRESPONDENTS AMONG THOSE OUT AT WCBS

Sadly, we've come to take these kinds of staff cuts for granted when they occur at newspapers.  (Read all about it ... in Eric Alterman’s brilliant New Yorker piece.)

And radio’s suffered, too.  (The possible collapse of Clear Channel’s buyout may mean even worse is in store for there.)

But local television?  Those near-monopoly broadcasters, who have been aggressive in capitalizing on their tremendous reach to drive viewers to their Web sites for what Borrell Associates said will be a lot of money.

“Local TV stations are expected to make more than $1.1 billion for online advertising this year, up 45 percent over 2007.  Link.”

In other words, print is not the only victim of the revolutionary changes the Internet is making to our media use.  Now the next question is ... is the online ad market immune from the financial pressures ‘old media’ are feeling.  or will they be cutting editorial/reporting staff? 

OOPS!  With a few exceptions, they don’t have any!  They live off the output of newspapers and magazines and broadcasters.  (Leo Laporte and Steve Gillmor talked about this reliance on old media by new media in the latest ‘This Week in Tech.”)  Huffington Post would look like MySpace if reporters and writers and columnists weren’t doing the heavy lifting of talking, interviewing, researching, and writing.

This latest round of job losses, now at major TV stations, is not good for the Internet today and is really bad news for journalism tomorrow.