The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) takes place in Las Vegas at the beginning of each year. The Just concluded 2013 show was dominated by TVs. In the past smartphones and gaming devices dominated the show. This year there were many different TVs that mesmerized the attendees.
Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics displayed thin, curved, and OLED TVs. Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) are more energy efficient than those current TVs, provides a better quality picture, are thinner than those that are available today, and are curved to optimize the viewing angle. Another feature that was rolled out this year was the ultra-high-definition (UHD) or 4K. UHD contain four times more pixels than 1080p high-definition TVs. In order to benefit from this technology, the content needs to be recorded in UHD. The problem with that is it takes 2,500 times the data that takes to produce a typical HD movie. This alone makes it extremely difficult to stream a movie.
New technology is not cheap. An 84-inch TV from Sony is priced at $25,000. Smaller sizes may go for less but don’t expect less than five figure price tag. On average people replace their TVs in every six years.
The Doha, Qatar based Al Jazeera English was a news force during the Iraq war and President Bush criticized the TV network for its Iraq war reporting. Al Jazeera became a force in the U.S. TV broadcasting. Al Jazeera is controlled by the Qatari government. It has regular broadcasting services in New York City and Burlington, Vermont. However, the network is struggling to establish its foothold in the U.S. and making an attempt to get into sports broadcasting especially into soccer with its BeIN Sport network.
Qatar is scheduled to host the 2022 World Cup games. It is in the process of buying exclusive rights to broadcast the game in the U.S. and France. It also secured deals with Comcast, DirecTV, and DISH Network for its BeIN Sports channel. The BeIN Sports hold rights for Italian, French and Spanish soccer games.
In Europe, BeIN Sports bought the Paris based Saint-Germain soccer team last year and spent more than $180.2 million to acquire new players. It is spending more than $454 million for rights to broadcast European Union soccer games and other leagues. The large sums of money it is spending in Europe is crushing other sport broadcasters and BeIN Sports is establishing its foothold in sport broadcasting.
By now you may have enjoyed the 2012 Summer Olympics which were broadcast over the NBC channel. Do you know NBCUniversal which operates NBC Channel is owned (majority owner) by Comcast? It acquired a majority stake in the media conglomerate NBCUniversal in January 2011. Comcast is the nation’s largest cable operator, home internet service provider and third largest home telephone service provider in the U.S. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania it operates in 40 states as well as the District of Columbia.
The Comcast provide multiple services. In addition to the majority stake in NBCUniversal, it operate cable networks including E! Entertainment, Style Network, G4, the Golf Channel, and NBC Sports Network. The Xfinity includes digital cable, cable Internet access and cable telephone services. Its Internet customer base is estimated at 18.6 million. As the nation’s third largest telephone provider it serves more than 9.3 million residential telephone lines. The Comcast also provide a business class service for small to mid-size businesses with an unknown number of customers.
Comcast’s second quarter 2012 earnings were $1.35 billion with estimated annual revenue of $15.2 billion. Its stock trade around $34 and has a dividend yield of 2 percent. Comcast aggressively repurchase its stock and maintain dividend payout.
Article submitted American Idol Fan Forum
Season 11 of American Idol started airing on Fox on January 19, 2012. Airing auditions will last until February 8, 2012 and Hollywood rounds will start on Thursday, February 9, 2012.
The Fox singing contest’s boss, Nigel Lythgoe says that there are no major changes to the show. He indicated that so many tweaks have been made to Season 10 and the changes to the show at this time are minor.
Judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler are no longer rookies. As we can see from the few aired auditions, they are no longer saying how wonderful everyone is, instead show maturity and toughness while providing encouragement to contestants. Randy Jackson who is a veteran of the show is the other judge.
Last season’s winner, Scotty McCreery, will entice more country singers to participate in the current season. When the show started several years ago, it was mostly pop and over the years it is showing maturity and diversity.
Show will air the exclusive world premiere of Madonna’s new music video on February 2, 2012.
Comedian Jim Carrey’s daughter Jane and St. Louis Cardinals pitcher, Joe Magraine’s daughter, Shannon is among this year’s contestants.
In another blow to the long running TV show, Kimberly McCullogh who has played the role of Robin Scorpio in General Hospital since 1985 from the tender age of seven is leaving the show to focus her efforts behind the camera and fulfill a lifelong dream of being a director.
She initially joined the cast on 1985 and stayed on till 1996 and rejoined the cast in 2005 after appearing on the show on and off in between. The show made headlines in the 90’s when her character Robin was diagnosed as being HIV positive.She will leave the show at the beginning of 2012 after appearing in over 750 episodes of the show.
The announcement of her departure from the show was made shortly after her co-star Jonathan Jackson who plays the role of Lucky announced that he was leaving the show.
General Hospital premiered on the ABC television network in 1963 and is the longest running American soap opera and the third longest running drama on television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns and the world’s second longest running television drama behind the British series Coronation Street. To date the show has had 49 seasons with over 12,400 episodes.
X Factor USA will become the first reality TV show to permit viewers to vote through social networking site twitter. The producers of the show announced the partnership with the social media network which allows viewers to vote for their favorite finalists. Voting will be open from November 2 after the live performanaces.
You will not be voting with tweets which will be very chaotic but through your account’s direct message feature. In addition XFactor fans can vote via Facebook, text messaging, the Xtra factor mobile application on Verizon Android phones and by phoning in.
“I think it’s fantastic that Verizon and ‘The X Factor’ are giving fans so many different ways to vote. Launching touch screen voting on Verizon’s The Xtra Factor App and the new voting on Twitter is really exciting, I love that the audience has more and more choice in the way that they can vote,” Simon Cowell said in a statement.
Only the votes sent via direct message to @TheXFactorUSA will count while publicly visible will not be counted as votes. Viewers who cast votes via TheXFactorUSA.com and Twitter are limited to 50 votes per account.
There is nothing like watching a good television series as a form of relaxation. Here are a few television series you should definitely see.
The Vampire Diaries – This is one of the highest rating shows of today. It is currently on hiatus and season 2 just ended. This is the perfect time for you to catch up Elena, Damon, Stefan and the rest of the citizens on Mystic Falls. Who do you think should end up with Elena? Are you for Damon or for Stefan?
Pretty Little Liars – Season 2 just started for this tv adaptation of the book series with the same title, written by Sara Shepard. Follow the lives of Spencer, Aria, Hanna and Emily as they try to figure out who really killed Allie and figure out who is behind the identity of “A”.
How I Met Your Mother – It’s currently on a hiatus but it has been revealed that CBS has picked up the show for another 2 seasons. It tells the story of 5 friends and their misadventures, Ted is telling his children about how he met their mother but so far, it has yet to be revealed. Season 6 ends with Ted being the best man at Barney’s wedding. Who is Barney marrying? And who is Ted’s wife? We will find out when Season 7 comes sometime later in 2011 or early 2012.
Glee – It is definitely one of the most popular television series on TV right now. It is currently on hiatus because Season 2 just ended but it has already been picked up for a 3rd season.
Glenn Beck, who has been a popular host on Fox News, took television viewers by surprise when he announced that his 5 pm program will transition off the network so that he can focus on producing a variety of television projects for Fox as well as the digital properties that Fox News currently owns.
And this news comes despite the fact that his news show is the third-highest rated cable news program, and which attracts almost 2.2 million viewers every night.
With the kind of response that he has received in taking up the 5 pm slot on Fox News, there was no doubt that this move has been met with surprise and digs from the media universe, where some are not sure what he’s going to do and the others wonder why he has made such a move.
Although he has been such a controversial figure, much to the envy of his left-wing competitors whose ratings pale in comparison, there’s no doubt that most people wonder who is going to pull the numbers for the 5 pm slot like Beck has done in the past.
In hindsight, his criticism of President Obama at the height of his popularity back when he was newly elected as the President drew a lot of criticism (and attention) has only changed his status from being another talk show host to a cultural icon of our times.
But there’s no doubt that Fox and Beck will continue to work together for some time to come, albeit in a new manner.