The media business is increasingly difficult to compete in effectively if you're not a media conglomerate. They've taken it as far as they can and it's time to move on.
The problem of piracy of digital screeners has been going on for a while and is a growing trend. Originally, the industry did not take the problem seriously, however.
This will mean that they cannot imagine life without consumer-electronics devices.
That kind of thing helps tremendously for a young network. It puts it in a much stronger negotiating position.
This maps onto Yankee Group research. We, too, have found that men are heavier users of these technologies than women, and better educated people tend to have more consumer-electronic devices than other segments.
You still have to have Lifetime, because that viewer base is a lot more established and committed. Dropping an established channel is more of a weakness than not having an emerging channel.
There are incentives, but in the U.S. -- with 85 percent of people subscribing to paid TV services -- it's hard to see direct over-the-air TV service having much impact in the future.
Integration is a formidable challenge. It's not so much a question of any individual player or a particular product; it's just a matter of whether they can dance together.
Microsoft is a very good software company. They are not a distribution company or a content-creation company. NBC is better at television.
If you go a la carte, that messes with the math there.
