Thursday, August 13, 2009
Comcast Reels In Discovery for Web TV Trial. But No “Deadliest Catch”!
Another big player has signed onto Comcast’s Web TV trial: Discovery Communication is handing over a few of its shows for the cable provider’s program, which gives subscribers online access to (some) of the shows they get on TV. Discovery joins other big names like CBS and HBO in Comcast’s “On Demand Online,” which launched last month in a few thousand homes.




Adam Carolla used to get paid a lot of money to host a morning radio show with a national audience. Now he’s spending his own money to produce a podcast for a fraction of his old audience. Does that sound like progress to you? It should.
Discovery Communications, the cable network best known for bringing you fare like “Shark Week”, says that Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader violates one of its patents. How so? Discovery says Amazon ripped off a system it designed to let it sell digital books over the Web.
Both Comcast and Timer Warner Cable want to give their subscribers Web access to more shows than they can currently get–at least legally. But the two companies have competing plans, based on different technologies and philosophies.