SkyBOX: Our 2004 They-Did-What? Awards

[Gregg Lengling]

by Evie Haskell evie@Mediabiz.com

'Tis the season ... and in the spirit of the holidays, SkyREPORT is prepared to bestow its annual awards to various industry bigwigs, competitors and their ilk. Without further ado, our awards for this year go to:

For Rupert Murdoch and Chase Carey: Has anyone in satellite ? well maybe outside of those of you in the top bargaining positions ? ever really SEEN these guys? Have they actually popped up at any industry events? (ARE there any industry events?) Anyway, for 2004 they definitely share our Wizard of Oz award. Watch out when they wave their wands!

For the SBCA: Dueling dominatrixes! Entrenched competitors! Retailers ready for war! But hey, they've moved themselves inside the Beltway; they got some good points in the latest satellite legislation; and we hear they've boosted rates on effective competition reports high enough to throw themselves a very, VERY good Christmas party. So what award should they snag for 2004? Um ... how about the Mighty Mouse, potentially morphing into the Mouse Tha Roared.

Our friends in cable land: Now this one is hard. In 2004 they mightily boosted their "other" services (AKA cable modems, VoIP etc.) while letting hundreds of thousands of their basic video homes slide out the door. They say that they're focused on video but they're putting much more effort into selling their various Internet type services. Are these guys wily? Or just very confused? Well, we're not sure. But there are a good number of smart dudes among the wired ones so for now we'll give them our 2004 Wait-and-See award.

The telcos: Color them scared. Very, very scared. But not sitting still. The telcos plan to, actually HAVE TO, blast into 2005 ready to do battle on everything from their basic phone business to their planned new video services. And they'll carry a lot of weight with them as they do. So, for now, let's give them our 2004 Goliaths-in-Waiting award.

The programmers: Ah, where to start? They've got both new and old video services, interactive TV, DVRs, VOD, new advertising paradigms, PLUS heavy weight platform providers ready to pounce on their pricing. Fortunately most of them also have some very smart thinkers and a strong creative spark. For 2004, they get our Changelings-in-Perpetuity award.

For Charlie Ergen: No, he's not holed up in a Las Vegas motel growing his fingernails. He's not as cute as Leonardo DiCaprio either. But for sheer secrecy (dare we say paranoia?) Mr. Charles W. earns our Howard Hughes Reincarnate award for 2004.

We could keep going but we figure we're probably in enough trouble already. So we wish you a joyous season and look forward to harassing you again in 2005.

Do you have a comment or letter for SkyBOX? Write the editors at: editor@skyreport.com. Please note, your comments may be used for our Web site. Please note, due to the holidays, SkyBOX will resume in January.