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Why bloggers and podcasters should be happy about a Comcast/NBC deal

The report that Comcast has been discussing a deal to buy 51% of NBC Universal is good news for bloggers and podcasters.

It is evidence that a company with wires into hundreds of thousands of households sees the future online.  Comcast saw its broadband sign ups last quarter nearly double from a year ago as people turn to the Internet for more and more of their information and entertainment.

You might argue that getting a lock on NBC programming is a defensive move.  Even though the network’s audience has been shrinking ever since Seinfeld had his last cup of coffee at Monk’s Cafe (aka Tom’s Restaurant in real life), NBC shows attract millions of viewers a night.  Consider like ‘30 Rock’ and ‘Trauma’ as loss leaders to build foot traffic for Comcast’s other programming, its owned cable channels.  They include the Golf Channel, E!, and lots of sports.  NBC, on the other hand has cable, too, including Bravo, CNBC, and USA Networks.  (Photo courtesy of Flickr.)

A few decades ago, the Big Three networks owned it all.  Now, cable channels targeting cooks, gardeners, gays, farmers, and gamers are vacuuming up advertising dollars.  And, soon, the Internet.  In the UK, Net advertising already eclipses TV ad dollars.

While the average TV household watches ‘only’ 17 of the several hundred channels available, that's 500% more than when there were just NBC, ABC, and CBS. The growth has come from special interest programming.

And what is online audio and video? Nothing but special interest programming.  You offer me high-protein programming about Macintoshes, digital photography, and start-up investing opportunities, and I’m there.  Goodbye CBS shows or, at least, get me a DVR that records three shows at the same time for later viewing.

The point is that there are more than 125,000 podcasts available on iTunes.  Many could be aggregated into special interest channels, and programmed into a 24/7 wheel of audio or video.

If Comcast or any cable company is going to grow, the challenge it faces is to bring more people into the tent at the same time that those people have more narrow interests in content. 

I think Comcast is recognizing that tomorrow’s cable channels are today's Netcasts.  By adding NBC’s mass appeal programming and niche channels, the number one cable company’s strategy is to grow its subscriber numbers by constantly promoting of its ‘old’ cable channels and to fertilize the green shoots of a thousand more 'new' flowering programmers.

Dim reception for video at Wall Street Journal

Radio and TV were part of the DNA at MarketWatch.com (NWS) when we started it 10 years ago. 

That means, back in the days of dial-up, we were pushing streaming audio and video down the line.  Even as WSJ.com and Forbes.com were figuring out how to get their plain old text into HTML, we were recording, concerting, uploading, and pushing multimedia content.

So, you can understand why this morning’s CNNMoney.com (TWX) ad in the Wall Street Journal is so disappointing.  CNNMoney.com is touting Nielsen’s report on online video usage for October,  showing it had the lion’s share (57%) of all business and finance video viewing online.

The pie chart says Yahoo Finance was second, MSN Money was third, followed by Forbes.com, CNBC.com (GE), Reuters (TRI), TheStreet.com (TSCM), BusinessWeek Online, and Other. 

Where are WSJ.com or MarketWatch.com?  It would seem, they are in “Other.” Inside a print-focused editorial system, it’s real hard to get the scribblers’ contributions.  Blame deadline pressures, editors’ propensity to check, recheck, and check every word, and a reluctance by some writers to come out from behind their bylines and be seen. MW and WSJ spend a lot of resources producing video and virtually none promoting it.

The simple fact is that audio and video are not a priority; their Managers haven’t been successful in selling it to their bosses, and their bosses haven’t had the time or interest in seeing the possibilities, i.e. ad sales.  But CNNMoney does, and then even used the pages of the video-challenged Wall Street Journal to say so.

But that doesn’t explain why people aren’t watching video on these two high-ranking Web sites.  There’s plenty of content, posted everyday.  Some of it is analysis, some opinion, but precious little of it is ‘breaking’ news coverage.  Goes back to that problem if getting the reporters’ attention and contribution.

Well, it’s just disappointing.  MW and WSJ video ... ya coulda been a contender.

Morning News 'Pack-o-Podcasts'

Listening to music or an iPod while you run is nothing new.  Millions of people do it.  Even my minister. I know because I gave him an iPod for Christmas last year. And I virtually gave up radio while commuting, in favor of hearing podcasts using a cassette-adapter in the car. 

Now I’ve gone a step further. Well, several thousand steps further. On my morning run, I catch up with the overnight news via podcasts.  I stack up a few favorites that total about 25 minutes. I created a “Morning News” Smart Playlist on my iPod so that when the shows download they go into that folder. It's easy then to  sync them to my Shuffle.   

My morning “pack ‘o podcasts” is:

•     Wall Street Journal Tech Briefing
•     Front Page Preview of The New YorkTimes
•     Cynopsis Digital (tech news)

    So far, I haven’t been able to find a good Sports update.  Anyone have a suggestion.

These short-form podcasts, from reliable and specialized information providers really give new meaning to the phrase “News on Demand.”