June 4, 2008

Time Warner Testing Internet Usage Model in Texas

Metered gigabyte consumption gets a tryout, Fuse makes pitch for wider audience and more news.

By Steve Goldstein

News Briefing for Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The Cable360 newsroom has until this Friday to come up with a viable business model for online video. Happy Wednesday.

Time Warner Cable is testing a metered Internet usage payment plan in Beaumont, Texas, Cable Digital News reports. The operator’s new high-speed customers will be charged $1 for every gigabyte used over a threshold determined by those customers’ level of service. [Cable Digital News]

Cablevision has poured $15 million into a promotional campaign for its music-focused cable TV channel, Fuse, the New York Times reports. The campaign, now led by Kristin Dolan, SVP, digital and video product management, and produced by agency the Brooklyn Brothers, takes a diverse creative approach and is designed to broaden the appeal of the music channel, which is moving beyond the borders of indie rock. [New York Times]

CBS will be using the “skin” advertising format for “The Burly Sports Show,” which it will be presenting on CBSSports.com, the Wall Street Journal reports. Skin—or background— advertising is just one of several formats marketers are experimenting with in order to turn online video into a real business. [Wall Street Journal]

Bruce Goldstein, directory of repertory programming at New York’s Film Forum, tells the Times that the destruction of more than 1,000 movie prints in the fire on the Universal Studios lot is a “tremendous, tremendous loss.” Goldstein fears that Universal, which has said that its principal archive remains safe and no titles appear to have been lost forever, has no real financial incentive to quickly strike new prints. [New York Times]

Inside the NFL, which ended its run on HBO this year, will move to Showtime this fall. [Hollywood Reporter]

Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint Nextel, was named the No. 1 most influential person in mobile technology by Laptop magazine. [Laptop] 

Legendary InfoWorld columnist Robert X. Cringely worries that the Internet will end up as bland as television. [InfoWorld]
 

Tuesday's Top Stories

Time's running out to nominate companies for CableFAX: The Magazine's Top 10 Places to Work in Cable. Complete our online nomination form by June 9 and let us know why your employer is tops. 

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