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MrRant

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  2. Posted · Report reply

    NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - The NFL Network will have a tough time convincing cable operators to carry the channel before its Nov. 4 launch, sources said.

     

     

     

    But the NFL said it is confident that operators will come to recognize the value and strong brand of its network as well as the advantage of partnering with the league in advance of being able to bid on the long sought-after NFL Sunday Ticket subscription package of out-of-market games.

     

     

    With a DirecTV deal in hand, the NFL Network has been wooing operators to become charter members with such incentives as free video-on-demand content and a slew of high-definition TV programming. The league's formal proposal reached operators Sept. 19, days after network chieftains entertained cable executives at New York Giants and Jets games at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

     

     

    Talks have stalled over the league's insistence that operators offer the network on digital basic tiers, which reach all digital customers at a cost of $10-$15. Cable executives want the NFL to follow NBA TV's model and let them offer the football network as part of a lineup of niche sports services that customers would have to pay yet another fee (about $5) to obtain.

     

     

    The NFL argues there is nothing "niche" about pro football. Preseason games are among the top-rated shows every summer, and "Monday Night Football" is a consistent top 15 show for 30-plus years on ABC.

     

     

    But the industry has balked at the estimated license fee of 10 cents a subscriber, partly over its relatively heavy cost and partly because of suspicions that the league will take a page from ESPN's playbook when it puts Sunday Ticket on the market following the expiration of the league's TV contract after the 2005 season.

     

     

    DirecTV has attracted about 1.5 million-1.6 million customers (who pay $179 or $209 a year) -- about 15% of its subscriber base -- with the exclusive property. That grosses the company roughly $300 million a year minus the NFL's split.

     

     

    Cable operators want that package badly but are wary of the NFL Network because of their experiences with ESPN, whose $2-plus license fees rise by 20% a year because the channel gets operators to kick in to help pay for its $4.8 billion NFL deal, sources said.

     

     

    While recognizing the value of the network's brand and being eager for the VOD content, operators want long-term protection against sharply rising costs and the league's ability to use Sunday Ticket as leverage to impose surcharges on its core license fee.

     

     

    The key question is: Who holds the high cards now -- operators who feel under no pressure to launch the NFL Network or the league with its Sunday Ticket package percolating? Will operators who don't launch the channel today be at a disadvantage in obtaining Sunday Ticket, or will all of that become irrelevant in 2005?

     

     

    "I would think operators would drive a very hard bargain," one source said, adding that in the short run, "The issue is going to be what kind of leverage the NFL has until such time that the (Sunday Ticket) deal gets opened up."

     

     

    Not coincidentally, Steve Bornstein, the man who was instrumental in shaping ESPN's aggressive sales strategy in the late 1980s and '90s, is running the NFL Network. Bornstein is counting on the cache and marketing power of the NFL, arguably the most popular sport in America, if not the most attractive television property around, inside or out of sports.

     

     

    "Cable operators are not wildly interested in carrying a high-priced sports channel without premium product," said one industry executive, who said that cable companies would love to get access to the NFL's extensive library to help jump-start its nascent VOD lineup. "The majority of large operators are trying to aggregate large packages of free VOD."

     

     

    The NFL Network will not offer regular-season games -- though it will show exhibition contests -- but executives believe they have prepared a slate of attractive programming that can help operators solve their problem of keeping digital customers. About 5% of them "churn" or disconnect the service after their initial purchases.

     

     

    "Nobody can go out and co-brand with the NFL," said Adam Shaw, senior vp distribution at the NFL Network and a former top executive at Fox Cable Networks. "We are going to allow bigger partners to have marketing opportunities where it could be 'the NFL and Charter bringing you X, Y and Z.' "

     

     

    Shaw said the network is willing to be flexible and allow operators to offer the network on sports tiers as long as the network is in front of a majority of operators' customers by 2006.

     

     

    "No one expects us to be a digital sports tier-only network," Shaw said, adding that a few operators in football-crazy towns have even expressed a desire to put the network on analog tiers that reach almost all of their customers. "At the end of the day, you have to make a certain penetration commitment."

     

     

     

     

     

    The network's primetime schedule is a mix of programming aimed at the hard-core fan and the casual viewer. At 8 p.m., the network will air "NFL Total Access," its flagship show with former ESPN "SportsCenter" anchor Rich Eisen that will go beyond the Xs and Os of the game and include a heavy celebrity quotient. The network also recently added former NFL players Sterling Sharpe and Glenn Parker to its on-air talent pool.

     

    "We think that this is going to appeal to women, going to appeal to all ethnic groups," Shaw said. "This goes to the idea that this is not a niche channel."

     

    A 10 p.m. show, "Playbook," is designed for the hard-core fan with segments on fantasy football and heavy "chalk talk."

     

    The NFL looks at its service as a "lifestyle channel," not a sports one. Off-season shows will include "NFL Cribs," a knock-off of the popular MTV show that peeks into stars' homes, and a behind-the-scenes look at how women become cheerleaders.

     

    But for now, operators believe they will never hold this much leverage over the league again. "In 2005, all bets are off," one source said. "Everything will be up for grabs at the time."

     

    Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

  4. Posted · Report reply

    Comcast can do it.  You would just pay for the cable internet part.  Unless it is with another cable company.

    Well...if they came and saw cable hooked up without me "paying for service" bad shit might happen.

    Some apartments/landlords have bulk cable (they pay like say $100 for 10 apartments to have basic cable) and then you would be above and beyond what the landlord is paying.

     

    Unless you mean that he has gone to the pole and tapped us illegally.

  5. Posted · Report reply

    SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Three Web sites that provide spam blocking lists have shut down as a result of crippling Internet attacks in what experts on Thursday said is an escalation in the war between spammers and opponents of unsolicited e-mails.

     

    keep getting better and better. Find your perfect portable PC, then accessorize.

     

    Anti-spam experts said that they think spammers are behind the attacks, although they have no way of proving it.

     

    The technological war comes as Congress considers a federal anti-spam law and California adopts what is widely considered to be the toughest law in the country.

     

    The California law, signed on Tuesday, allows people to sue spammers for $1,000 per unsolicited e-mail and up to $1 million for a spam campaign.

     

    "This definitely marks an escalation in the spam wars," Andrew Barrett, executive director of The Spamcon Foundation, a spam watchdog group, said of the recent Internet attacks on lists used to block spam.

     

    "Before, it was a guerrilla war ... This is the first time we've seen (spammers) employ such brazen tactics," he said.

     

    Anti-spam advocates maintain hundreds of spam block or "black hole" lists, which are Web sites with lists of the numerical Internet protocol addresses of specific computers or e-mail servers that are unsecure or are known sources of spam.

     

    Network administrators and Internet service providers consult the lists and block e-mails coming from those computers as part of their spam filtering techniques.

     

    Two of those spam block lists have shut down after being attacked by denial-of-service (news - web sites) attacks, in which compromised computers are used to send so much traffic to a Web site that it is temporarily taken down. The operator of another list shut down fearing a pending attack.

     

    "There seems to be a methodical well-planned attempt to use pre-assembled networks of zombie machines to create sustained denial of service attacks (news - web sites) on servers where these block lists run," said Barrett.

     

    'HANDWRITING ON THE WALL'

     

    Monkeys.com shut down on Monday following a three-day denial of service attack over the weekend and an attack last month that lasted 10 days, list operator Ronald Guilmette said in a posting to an anti-spam news group.

     

    "The handwriting is now on the wall," he wrote. "I will simply not be allowed to continue fighting spam."

     

    Spam block list operator Osiriusoft.com also recently shut down its list after a denial of service attack, and on Tuesday the list maintained at Tennessee Internet service provider Compu-Net Enterprises was taken down.

     

    Bill Larson, network administrator at Compu-Net, said in an interview on Thursday that he shut the list down because he was afraid it would be targeted with a denial of service attack.

     

    The company was already being harassed, receiving complaints after attackers sent spam that looked like it was coming from the company's network and legitimate e-mails were getting bounced, he said.

     

    Experts have speculated that spammers are behind a computer worm, Sobig, that surfaced earlier this year that can turn infected computers into spam relay machines.

     

    "The black hole lists were incredibly effective until the Sobig worm started going out," Larson said.

     

    While Guilmette complained that ISPs could do more to stop the attacks by taking the attacking computers offline, Larson said anti-spam advocates were considering other options to keep the lists going.

     

    They are talking about having lists that are distributed across numerous computers like in a peer-to-peer network, he said. "That will make it hard, if not impossible, to take them down," he added.

     

    However, the best solution to the problem is for people to just "not buy the products mentioned in spam" advertisements, Larson added.

  11. Posted · Report reply

    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Locked in a court battle with film and music studios over its popular Kazaa file-sharing software, Sharman Networks this week accused its legal foes of copyright infringement -- the same charge the entertainment companies have leveled against it.

     

    Sharman, headquartered on the island nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, on Monday amended its claim in federal court in Los Angeles to accuse the labels and studios of breaching its copyright and privacy provisions to covertly gather information about users of Kazaa. It also revived its antitrust charges in the claim.

     

    Last year, the record labels and movie studios filed a copyright infringement suit against Sharman, one of several such legal battles against file-sharing services in their effort to stamp out online piracy.

     

    A spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites), which represents the major labels, said the copyright infringement claim was ironic for a company accused of abetting online piracy.

     

    "Sharman Networks' newfound admiration for the importance of copyright law is ironic, to say the least," the RIAA spokeswoman said. "Too bad this self-serving respect stops at their headquarters' door in Vanuatu, and doesn't extend to preventing the rampant piracy on their networks or lifting a finger to educate their users about the consequences of illegal file sharing," she added.

     

    Sharman also accused the studios of a concerted scheme to keep Sharman, its partner Altnet, and peer-to-peer technology out of the market for licensed digital content distribution.

     

    Since last year, digital media company Altnet, owned by Brilliant Digital Entertainment Inc., has placed pay-content listings among Kazaa search results to lead users to authorized, protected files instead of unlicensed music tracks and other content on Kazaa.

     

    Sharman has touted the partnership with Altnet as a potential and legitimate revenue source for music labels.

     

    But in its counterclaim, it said that while Sharman and Altnet held various productive talks with executives at AOL Time Warner's Warner Music, Vivendi Universal's Universal Music and other labels, these efforts were later stymied by industry body directives.

     

    It said the studios also engaged in collusion to apply pressure to advertisers, Internet service providers, and business partners of Sharman and Altnet, as well as public smear campaigns.

  12. Posted · Report reply

    SEATTLE (Reuters) - Computer security experts issued a joint report on Wednesday saying that the ubiquitous reach of Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) software on desktops worldwide has made computer networks a national security risk susceptible to "massive, cascading failures."

     

    The report, unveiled at the Computer & Communications Industry Association's meeting of industry leaders and government officials in Washington, D.C., saying that Microsoft is now the number one target for malicious computer virus writers. The report's authors told CCIA -- which is funded by Microsoft rivals -- that the software's complexity has made it particularly vulnerable to attacks.

     

    So far this year, two major viruses emerged that took advantage of flaws in Microsoft software.

     

    Slammer, which targeted computers running Microsoft's server-based software for databases, slowed down Internet traffic across the globe and shut down flight reservation systems and cash machines in the United States.

     

    The Blaster worm burrowed through hundreds of thousands of computers, destroying data and launching attacks on other computers.

     

    "The nature of the platform that dominates every desktop everywhere is such that its dominance, coupled with its insecurity, cannot be ignored and is a matter of corporate and national policy," said Dan Geer, a security consultant and chief technology officer of @Stake, a computer security company.

     

    Geer, along with other well-known computer security experts Rebecca Bace, Peter Gutmann, Perry Metzger, Charles Pfleeger, John Quarterman, and Bruce Schneier, said they issued their report to raise awareness of the risk to national security by using a single, wide-spread software system.

     

    The report's authors said the report was a reflection of their own views and not necessarily those of the CCIA, an industry trade group of Microsoft's competitors that has a long history of suing the world's largest software maker.

     

    But in response to the report, Americans for Technology Leadership, an industry trade group backed by Microsoft and other companies and organizations, called the report an attempt by the CCIA to exploit the "serious issue of cyber-security."

     

    "Cyber-security is an industry-wide problem that will not be solved by malicious finger pointing and political attacks," Jim Prendergast, executive director of Americans for Technology Leadership, said in a statement.

     

    IS MONOPOLY THE PROBLEM?

     

    Microsoft, which launched its Trustworthy Computing initiative in early 2002 to make its software more secure and reliable, said it is continuing to work with its customers and the government to make its software "as secure, private and reliable as possible."

     

    "Microsoft considers security for all of our customers -- from government networks to individual PC users -- to be our top priority," said Microsoft spokeswoman Ginny Terzano. "The widespread use of Microsoft products around the world means we are constantly working to be responsive when vulnerabilities occur."

     

    But the security experts said the issue of computer security had more to do with the ubiquity of Microsoft's software than any flaws in the software.

     

    The best solution, the report's authors argued, is to adopt a mix of different computer systems that will reduce the risk of a single security incident crippling a company or a government agency.

     

    "Having more than one operating system running inside your enterprise (news - web sites) would be a substantial improvement," said Geer.

     

    Bruce Schneier, a co-author of the report and chief technology officer of network monitoring firm Counterpane Security, noted a recent initiative by Japan, Korea and China to develop an alternative operating system to Microsoft's Windows to enhance security.

     

    "I wouldn't put all of the blame on Microsoft," Schneier said, "the problem is the monoculture."

  13. Posted · Report reply

    I take offense to that comment Marney as the only news is not political news.

    True, but most of the news you post about isn't significant in any meaningful sense of the term. It's simply weird, disgusting, or stupid shit that happened on that particular day. It isn't important. It doesn't affect anyone outside the story. Whether or not it's current, it isn't news and it isn't an event.

     

    Some of us would like to discuss something other than the 8 or 9 threads on the presidential debate

    That's fine, and I'm not saying that CE should be entirely about politics.

     

    and if you don't like it.... then complain to Tom.

    I believe you're confusing me with JMA.

    For once, I agree with Marney. CE should be mainly political, or at least meaningful, news. The "lighter" stuff fits better in General Chat.

    Then you are a moron. Define "lighter" stuff. What is meaningful to you means jack shit to me motherfucker so I will post what is meaningful and current to me.

  14. Posted · Report reply

    I take offense to that comment Marney as the only news is not political news. Some of us would like to discuss something other than the 8 or 9 threads on the presidential debate and if you don't like it.... then complain to Tom. :P

     

    Edit: And the rules are stupid Dames. The only place it would apply would probably be in the WWE folder because you shouldn't expect people to go and find a thread posted a year ago to bump.

  19. Posted · Report reply

    The Eagles and Bills get the BCS popular vote for potential and strength of schedule, of course. Bills and Dolphins should switch spots and the Eagles should be 3 spots lower.

    Bills and Dolphins should not switch as Miami lost against a relatively bad Texans while the Bills lost to a good team in Miami so Buffalo should be higher.

  22. Posted · Report reply

    2003 Power Rankings: Week 4

     

    1 Chiefs 3-0-0

    2 Buccaneers 2-1-0

    3 Colts 3-0-0

    4 Broncos 3-0-0

    5 Seahawks 3-0-0

    6 Bills 2-1-0

    7 Vikings 3-0-0

    8 Titans 2-1-0

    9 Dolphins 2-1-0

    10 Steelers 2-1-0

    11 Panthers 2-0-0

    12 Patriots 2-1-0

    13 Giants 2-1-0

    14 Ravens 2-1-0

    15 Rams 1-2-0

    16 Redskins 2-1-0

    17 49ers 1-2-0

    18 Eagles 0-2-0

    19 Packers 1-2-0

    20 Raiders 1-2-0

    21 Browns 1-2-0

    22 Saints 1-2-0

    23 Falcons 1-2-0

    24 Cowboys 1-1-0

    25 Lions 1-2-0

    26 Cardinals 1-2-0

    27 Jets 0-3-0

    28 Texans 1-2-0

    29 Jaguars 0-3-0

    30 Bengals 0-3-0

    31 Chargers 0-3-0

    32 Bears 0-2-0

     

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    Thuoughts? My disagreement is with the Rams being ranked above the Redskins and a WINLESS Eagles being ranked above teams with a win.

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