It appears that one of our competitors, Time Warner Cable has gotten into some hot water by offering an iPad app to customers for viewing content they pay for in their homes. Apparently, Viacom, Discovery, and Fox sent cease and desist letters to TWC, demanding that their content be pulled from the iPad application they began offering last month.  Time Warner countered with legal maneuvers of its own, filing a request for summary judgement in a U.S. District Court in southern New York.

In a statement, Time Warner Cable’s executive VP and General Counsel said, “We have steadfastly maintained that we have the rights to allow our customers to view this programming in their homes, over our cable systems, without artificial limits on the screens they can use to do so, and we are asking the court to confirm our view.”  Further, TWC launched the very next day an additional 17 channels from content providers who apparently had no problem with the iPad app Time Warner released.

It appears to me that technology should trump the “old school” thinking on this issue.  If the assumed goal of a content provider is to have as many eyes as possible viewing content it produces, why would it want to limit any screen that a paying customer owns from viewing content ?  Go figure.

Regardless of your point of view on this issue, it promises to be hotly debated for the next several weeks.  This issue is also emblematic of many other issues where technology that is widely embraced by the public ends up trumping industry policy.

When the VCR was first introduced many years ago, the video content creation industry reacted by petitioning the US Congress to ban the devices outright.  When that failed, they tried to push through a “tax” on blank video tapes that would discourage their use.  Virtually the same playbook was read in the audio content industry when digital audio recorders (DAT) were introduced in the early ’90’s.  Complex legal maneuvers, copy protection schemes, petitions to government authority, and ultimately the technologies themselves came and went.  None of the histrionics of a slightly paranoid industry made it off the block.

Here’s the thing.  Most people understand that the creation of quality content costs money, and are willing to pay for quality entertainment, whether music or video production. Those very very few that are bent on bootlegging or infringing copyrights will likely find a way to do so, in spite of DRM protections.

Until next time….

Until recently, we had a singular focus on delighting customers in the original 42 communities we began to serve in the mid and late 1990’s.  I believe we made a very wise decision to first deliver existing customers the possible service and meet all of our business objectives before we considering expanding into new areas.  After attaining our initial business goals last year, our leadership team uniformly agreed that our organization was prepared to continue delivering our award winning service to current customers while simultaneously bringing the WOW! experience to new communities.

How did we determine where to go? Well, we have the great fortune of being surrounded by so many communities that want our service.  In order to make the best business possible decision we established a set of criteria to rate the opportunities.  We identified a myriad of important success factors that included the ability to market our service, the cost of construction, the proximity of the community to our existing network, the density of homes located within a community and the overall ease of construction.  After months of intense research, analysis and debate, for Michigan, we selected Beverly Hills, Birmingham, and Grosse Pointe Woods as our first three expansion communities.

Once the selection process was completed, the tedious and intricate work of constructing a brand new, fiber rich network throughout the community began.  The expansion process is extremely detailed and most of it is invisible to residents.  The portion customers do see is the physical installation of our network most often onto existing utility poles located in the public easements that border a home.  Over a period of several weeks, we install our advanced fiber network on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis.  As each area is completed, we provide information and education about how residents can make a change for the better.

Here is a summary of the status of our efforts in the three initial expansion areas:

Beverly Hills: The great news is we completed construction of our network in January 2011 and you can now make a change for the better.   Installation in Beverly Hills has surpassed our expectations and the response from customers is awesome.  I have received notes and emails from numerous customers expressing thanks for enabling them to join the WOW! family.

Birmingham: Today over 6000 residents have access to our service and construction is expected to be completed by March 1, 2011.   When we are finished, customers in the residential community will have access to our service except for those located in condominium and apartment complexes.  These developments have private easements that require us to obtain a separate contract with the association or apartment complex owner.  As contracts are obtained to access these private easements, service will then be made available.

Grosse Pointe Woods (GPW): Network construction crews started hanging fiber optic cable last month.  We expect to begin performing in-home installations on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis beginning in April or May of this year.  Residents will find it quick and easy to make the change to our awarding winning service.  At this point, GPW is the only one of the five Grosse Pointe communities we will serve due to local ordinances strictly prohibiting our ability to sell service directly to residents.

If you don’t live in one of these areas, that doesn’t mean you are not on our radar screen.  We have a desire to grow and the required financial resources.  Future expansion decisions will be predicated on the same operational philosophies that enabled us to attain past success.  My hope is that one day I will have the immense pleasure of reading your note describing how WOW! team members are consistently delighted you though their actions while supporting a service that is enhancing your quality of life.

Keep checking our blog or our Coming Soon page from the WOW! website to learn more about future expansion projects though out the communities WOW! operates.

  A little kindness goes a long way!!!

http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/stressrelievers.htm

But I am still curious to know did anyone else struggle with this past week’s episode or am I the only viewer that thought there was a disconnect?

So, now that I have hyped up how excited I am for fall TV, you are probably dying to know what is on my watch list.  Don’t lie, I know you are.

Mondays

• Gossip Girl
• Dancing with the Stars
• Lone Star
• Chuck
• The Event
• Little People, Big World (So sad that it is the last season!

Tuesday

• The Good Wife
• Life Unexpected
• Glee
• Running Wilde
• Parenthood

Wednesday

• Better with You
• Modern Family
• Cougar Town
• Hellcats
• Lie to Me
• Hell’s Kitchen
• South Park

Thursday

• My Generation
• S#*! My Dad Says
• Outsourced
• The Apprentice
• The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Friday

• Outlaw

Sunday

• Undercover Boss

What are you looking forward to watching this fall?

  The WOW! Sales staff understands that not ever customer’s needs are the same. They also understand that the economy has not been the best lately, as well. The WOW! sale staffs are not only trained on the product knowledge but also how to “Right-Size” the customer to what they need. If you are only using the High Speed Data for checking your email, you probably do not need the fastest speed of service. Or if your idea of watching TV consists of the local channels, then a premium package may not be for you.

  When you call in to order new service, or change your existing service, let the sale staff know what your needs are and they will make sure that services you buy are the “Right-Size” for you. A salesperson is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by calling: 866-496-9669

In their first year of business they added internet service to their video products and started hiring and training employees to deliver a ‘memorable experience.’  Lo and behold, many residents started to switch to WOW!.  Encouraged by the progress, the little cable company started hiring even more people who held the same core values:  Respect, Integrity, Accountability and Servanthood.  Business became brisk! 

Much to the little cable company’s surprise a large percentage of their NEW customers were a direct result of their CURRENT customers sharing their happy, positive experiences.  The company invited their customers to ‘refer-a-friend’ and continued their focus on exceptional service.  The little cable company was proud to have employees who made such a good impression, so they made a steady practice of recognizing and rewarding their employees’ outstanding performances.  They shared out the annual profits with everyone who worked there.

One day, a customer wrote a complimentary letter that talked about how the little cable company had ‘WOW’ed her’ and POOF! the WOW! Moment was born.  Now the little cable company focused on providing WOW! Moments for their customers and for each other.  The little cable company added phone as a third primary service, and kept chugging along, hiring really good people with strong, service-oriented values. 

Eventually this little cable company grew to be 1300 strong.  Over the years they won customer satisfaction awards from famous sources like JD Power and Associates, PC Magazine and Consumer Reports.  But the little cable company didn’t take this for granted.  Not at all.  Always mindful of the bigger engines making noise on the tracks, the little cable company taught its employees that it was an honor and a privilege to serve others.  The employees embraced this philosophy and always tried to leave their customers smiling.

Today, the little cable company is planning for its future by looking at the next hill and being fueled by appreciation for everyone who contributes to its success.  ‘We think we can, we think we can… ’  As long as we keep our sense of appreciation and stay focused on WOW! Moments, the next hill will never be too big to climb.

But what next? Does it ever end? Do we as a viewing public get tired of watching the same stuff season after season with no couple ever getting married with the exception of two?

The jury is out until next week.

TiVo is representative of an increasing trend where video consumers purchase hardware that allows access to a number of digital video and music sources; i.e., cable, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, etc.  TiVo can function as a classic DVR, with the full feature set associated with that device.  But in addition, all of the new TiVo products are internet savvy, which allows access to popular digital sources available on the internet as well.

One of the most controversial aspects of TiVo is the monthly subscription fee, which, unlike cable video services or Netflix, does not buy access to any content.  It only buys access to the programming guide which is tightly integrated into the DVR system.  Cost per month varies from about $12.95 to a little under $7.00, depending on how long a contract is chosen.  Without the service contract, according to TiVo, the box “will have very limited functions…the only thing you would be able to do is record live TV.”  Basically a paperweight…

While as mentioned before, the box (currently the Premiere® or the Premiere XL®) is well designed generally, there are a few goofy things that should have been anticipated by the company.  For example, it lacks a built-in 802.11n network access point, and, if you want the internet enabled features over wireless, you must plunk down another $90 for the external adapter (another wired goober to hide somewhere).  If you have wired ethernet near your video set up, no problem.  But this is a design flaw that the company should have anticipated with its new set top design.

Most of the folks I have talked to that have the TiVo service think it’s great–it enhances the experience from cable, Netflix, and other video services.  The TiVo system does have a 30-day money back guarantee.

As we have covered some of the new generation HD sets available, it appears that many of them are incorporating internet savvy applications to access video content from a number of sources.  I’m anxious for the day when it will be possible to interface an external hard disk to the TV, and DVR functionality would then be part of the set’s interface.  That may not be that far off.

In the meantime, TiVo is a viable option out there to increase access to and usability of digital content in a sophisticated home theatre set up.  Whether it’s precisely the best alternative for you (as a video server or client) depends on your needs and tastes.

Until next time….