and we're done

Look at everyone's favorite owner talking about something that he actually knows about :lol:

IDK if you guys have a subscription to the WSJ, but here is the article and link below

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...7961424594702.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

]Future of Cable Might Not Include TV
At Cablevision, Broadband Could Become Primary Offering Eventually

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By SHALINI RAMACHANDRAN
And MARTIN PEERS CONNECT
Enlarge Image
image
European Pressphoto Agency
Media-shy CEO James Dolan in 2009. He says Cablevision may eventually focus on broadband.

Predicting that transmission of TV will move to the Internet eventually, Cablevision Systems Corp. CVC -0.71% Chief Executive James Dolan says "there could come a day" when his company stops offering television service, making broadband its primary offering.

His comments may be the first public acknowledgment by a cable CEO of the possibility of such a shift, long speculated about by analysts. It comes amid growing tensions between cable operators and channel owners over rising programming costs, highlighted Friday night when Time Warner Cable Inc. dropped CBS from its channel lineup TWC -0.17% in major markets such as New York and Los Angeles.

If cable operators drop TV service, charging only for broadband, channel owners would have to sell directly to the public or through Web outlets.

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In a 90-minute interview on Friday, the usually media-shy 58-year-old executive also talked about his marriage, his relationship with his father Chuck and his after-hours role as a singer and songwriter. He said his rock band, JD & the Straight Shot, toured with the Eagles last month.

Mr. Dolan said that on the rare occasions he watches TV, it is often with his young children, who prefer to watch online video service Netflix, using Cablevision broadband.

He added that the cable-TV industry is in a "bubble" with its emphasis on packages of channels that people are required to pay for, predicting it will mature "badly" as young people opt to watch online video rather than pay for traditional TV services.

To ensure Cablevision is prepared for the future, he said, he is investing heavily in the company's network connectivity and overhauling operations to improve efficiencies.

If Cablevision does drop video service, "I don't want to be saddled with an infrastructure that is as big as the one that I have now," he said.

He was speaking at a point of intense uncertainty for the cable industry, which faces a wave of online competitors offering cheaper video options. Meanwhile, cable pioneer John Malone and other cable executives have been calling for consolidation among U.S. cable operators, in part to push back against entertainment companies over rising program costs.

Cablevision—the fifth-biggest U.S. cable operator, serving about three million customers—is considered a likely acquisition target, given its hold on much of the New York area. Mr. Dolan's family controls the company and gives little sign of whether it is interested in selling.

In the interview, asked if the Dolan family will continue to control Cablevision in 20 years' time, Mr. Dolan said: "I would not go so far as to say that."

He added, "We are going to continue to do the right things for the shareholders. That's why you can't rule out the possibility of a sale."

Mr. Dolan declined to comment on whether the company was having any talks currently or had received any approaches.

Later in the interview, he said that "business is in our blood, particularly these businesses, but if it wasn't this business there would be another business."

But Mr. Dolan doesn't expect consolidation to necessarily help cable operators gain leverage against programmers to push back on rising fees. While he said "size helps," he added that Cablevision's position in the valuable New York market "helps us have more leverage than our size would dictate."

Much of his family is involved in running the business, including an uncle in his late seventies. Mr. Dolan recently promoted his wife Kristin, a veteran cable executive, to lead sales, marketing and product management, shortly after the two said they were taking a trial separation. "I didn't promote my wife; I married an amazing executive. We're really good friends," he said, adding that "we're figuring things out."

As for his father Chuck, the 86-year-old company founder and chairman, Mr. Dolan said with a laugh that he "comes over everyday and harasses me." The two talk over the weekends "for extended periods of time" and throughout the week about direction and philosophical differences. "He guides me," Mr. Dolan said.

The father of six boys ages 4 to 26, Mr. Dolan has plenty of outside interests, such as chairing Madison Square Garden Co., owner of the National Basketball Association's New York Knicks, and performing with his rock band.

Still, Mr. Dolan has immersed himself deeply in Cablevision since late 2011, after a period in which the company experienced severe subscriber defections amid signs of customer dissatisfaction with its service. A Federal Communications Commission report earlier that year indicated the company was trailing its main rival, Verizon Communications Inc.'s VZ 0.00% FiOS, in Internet speeds relative to what each advertised.

The company at that point had pushed capital spending down to "fairly bare-bones maintenance levels," Chief Financial Officer Gregg Seibert said in June.


A blackout of CBS's flagship network on Time Warner Cable systems in New York, Los Angeles and a few other markets dragged on through the weekend with no sign of any resolution. Shalini Ramachandran has more. Photo: Getty Images.

Mr. Dolan said that he became more involved shortly before Cablevision's chief operating officer at the time, Tom Rutledge, left to run Charter Communications Inc. CHTR -1.54%

"Tom has a different operating philosophy than the operating philosophy I wanted to follow," Mr. Dolan said, while adding that Mr. Rutledge was an "excellent executive." Mr. Rutledge, he said, was more focused on marketing while Mr. Dolan is "focused more on the relationship with the customer," which is crucial to "the long-term health of the company."

"I felt that we needed to reinvest," Mr. Dolan said. "When we took a hard look at what we were offering,…it just wasn't what we wanted it to be."

He boosted capital expenditures 32% to $1.1 billion in 2012 and poured about $150 million directly into the broadband network. And for this year, the company has told Wall Street that capital spending will remain at "elevated levels." The result, so far, has been higher Internet speeds, expanded outdoor wi-fi service, new modems for customers and an array of products that Mr. Dolan promised will reinvigorate subscriber growth, including a cloud-based digital video recording feature that allows 10 shows to be recorded at once—even through older set-top boxes. He has also beefed up network-monitoring systems so the company can detect outages before customers call in to complain.

Despite the investment, in the past two quarters the company lost video-subscribers, unlike in the year-earlier periods, while it added broadband and voice customers at a slower pace.

But, Mr. Dolan said Cablevision is "finally starting to see a little light at the end of this tunnel." A recent FCC test found that the company's Internet speeds were faster than advertised and nearly matched FiOS's performance.

"I think he's taken some very positive steps," said Chris Marangi, portfolio manager at GAMCO Investors Inc., a Cablevision shareholder. "Jim has a multigenerational view, a longer-term view." Mr. Marangi added that the reinvestment is "having a positive impact" on customer satisfaction and customer adds. "But it's coming at the expense of margins in the short term," he said.

Mr. Dolan, who first started playing guitar at age 17, said he has learned a lot from watching the downfall of music companies that used to require consumers to buy albums of songs rather than letting them choose what they want. The lesson: If you don't "ride the wave" you "get eaten by the wave."
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he's definitely right about all that

know plenty of people who've decided to cancel their cable subscription. it's mostly not worth it
 
nYcHipHopHippo said:
Only reason dudes are tombout wasting money on cable is cuz it's football and basketball offseason :lol:
Click to expand...

Im with you guys on this. I've been doing a lot of thinking, and I've come to realize that I barely ever watch live TV anymore.

The only exception would be when I watch the Knicks and football. I feel compelled to make an excel spreadsheet and see what my trend of TV watching looks like :lol:

I do watch movies when they're on though and sometimes I'll catch re-runs of older shows late at night. Last night I was watching Independence Day and then saw some old Friends re-runs after :lol:
 
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I'd pay $20 a month for a impeccable 1080p web version of MSG during basketball season. If that was an option I wouldn't have cable.
 
Weiner sext gal Sydney Leathers strips down and bares all in porn flick

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Sydney Leathers in "Weinergate."
Here’s a full-blown look at Sydney Leathers, the Bible Belt sext kitten "poked" by mayoral horndog Anthony Weiner.

Leathers got down and dirty for Vivid Entertainment, showing online porn fans what Weiner had in mind as he blew his bid for political redemption.

“Initially Anthony Weiner had poked me on Facebook, and that’s how our conversation started from there,” Leathers told cameras in a preview video, where she poses in a sexy black teddy.

“I was shocked and flattered at the same time when I saw that he poked me. And then as the conversations progressed, it quickly turned sexual and it was the same thing. I was just shocked and flattered.”

In other seductive poses, Leathers wrapped herself in an American flag and in an unbuttoned white men’s shirt.

Leathers wasn’t shy about touching herself in front of Vivid cameras and explaining Weiner’s nonstop need for phone sex — that the mayoral candidate reportedly wanted to turn from cyber to reality in Chicago.

Weiner told Leathers he wanted to set her up in a Windy City love nest, according to the virtual paramour-turned-pornstress. But he feared neighbors would hear their out-of-control romps, she said.

“He kind of talked about maybe helping me get a condo in Chicago and then that became this whole other fantasy of, you know, 'Well how will I sneak in and out without people recognizing me? How will we have sex and have the neighbors not hearing,’ that type of thing,” Leathers said.

Vivid subscribers have access to two videos of Leathers.

The 35-minute job captures her photo shoot, complete with frontal nudity, backside shots and south-of-the-equator footage.

An 18-minute clip is the more serious sit-down with Leathers, explaining her relationship with Weiner and sexual turn-ons.

In a particularly telling portion of that chat, Leathers boasted about stringing along an older Sugar Daddy for three years. She proudly said that her day-to-day expenses were paid for, all without having to put out.

“I never had sex with him. I didn’t want to because I knew I didn’t have to,” Leathers said. “I knew I could get what I wanted without sleeping with him.”

Now that her 15 minutes of fame have stretched into 53 minutes of X-rated footage, Leathers said she’s being recognized on the streets.

“It’s happening more frequently,” she said. “In passing the other day, someone said, 'Oh there’s the Weiner girl.’ “
 
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