A feud has erupted between Time Warner and cable networks after the cable provider released an iPad app for 32 live TV channels. Time Warner, which didn’t get permission from the networks, says it is “well within our rights” to transmit to any home device, provided it does so through its own “secure network” and not the “open Internet.” Several networks fervently disagree, with one calling the move a “land grab,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Some agreements between networks and cable providers address “cable television” and not other devices, network executives say. But a Time Warner exec disagreed: “We don’t define in our contracts what a viewing device is, because technology has always been evolving,” she said. “I don’t know what a TV is anymore.” The battle is part of a larger war over how to provide content in the digital age. Time Warner aims to stay at the forefront as viewing habits change—and it plans to put all its channels on the iPad.
Don’t look now, but another tech bubble is upon us. Signs “have been appearing over the last year—seed and late-stage valuations are rapidly inflating, hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest since the last bubble and investors are starting to openly wonder how this one will end,” writes Steve Blank in the Huffington Post. A USA Today analysis agrees, noting investors’ insatiable appetite for web startups and the coming swarm of IPOs, though it says things aren’t nearly as crazy as they were in 2000.
Financial blogger Paul Kedrosky even has a list of Top 10 signs the valley is getting a little nuts, everything from “fawning” coverage on CNBC, to “everyone you know has a startup,” to his No. 1 piece of evidence: “journalists are quitting journalism for startups.” Blank, meanwhile, offers a backgrounder on the previous bubble and what he calls the “new rules” for this one . for that.
Rupert Murdoch turns 80 on March 11, but his ability to cause controversy is undiminished. The Australian-born media mogul is at the center of a new row after the U.K. government on March 3 effectively gave him the green light to take full ownership of BSkyB, the satellite TV company he founded more than two decades ago. Murdoch’s business rivals and political enemies have cried foul, claiming the deal will allow him to strengthen his grip on the nation’s media sector and once again proves he is too close to the government.
Until now, Murdoch’s News Corporation has owned just 39% of Sky, always seen as enough to give Murdoch effective control of a business of which his son James used to be chief executive and remains chairman. The reason News Corp now wants full ownership is essentially commercial: at a time when other parts of the media industry are being squeezed, Sky has become seriously profitable, set to throw off $1.6 billion in cash a year. With full control of this income stream, Murdoch could use it to support the harder-pressed parts of his global empire, which includes Fox and the .
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When Steve Jobs strode onstage and unveiled the iPad in January 2010, he should have ended his presentation by firing a starting pistol. The news left nearly every other big computer and consumer-electronics maker racing to get into the tablet market that Jobs’ iPad had suddenly created.
As it happens, the competition turned out to be a marathon. More than a year later, we’re still talking about tablets that are huffing and puffing their way toward the showroom floor. There’s RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook, slated to arrive by the end of March. HP’s Web OS-based TouchPad is due this summer. And dozens of other models are on their way. The pace has been so plodding that Apple’s second-generation iPad which the company is set to announce next week will apparently beat most other companies’ first-generation models to market.
Then there’s Motorola’s Xoom, which goes on sale at Verizon retail locations on Thursday. (I’ve been testing a pre-release unit provided by Motorola and Verizon for the past few days.) It’s the first honest-to-goodness, no-qualifications-necessary iPad rival from a major manufacturer to hit stores.
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The U.S. economy can likely absorb $100 oil and keep expanding, even though gasoline prices would rise further and growth would slow. But it would hurt.
Gasoline for U.S. drivers already costs more than at any point since 2008, despite fairly modest demand and ample U.S. supplies.
The national average for a gallon of unleaded gasoline was $3.19 on Wednesday — 53 cents more than a year ago. Analysts expect the average to range between $3.25 and $3.75 this spring.
Oil prices had been rising for months, but they jumped this week as violence gripped Libya. Analysts say any production declines in Libya could likely be absorbed by other producers like Saudi Arabia. Libyan oil accounts for less than 1 percent of U.S. crude imports.
Still, regional turmoil can still raise the price of oil, regardless of the source. Analysts say concerns about violence in North Africa and the Middle East have put a “fear premium” that is added about $10 a barrel.
Consumers and businesses would feel pinched by $100-a-barrel oil — and not just drivers. Sto
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