Monday, November 21, 2005

New SBC/AT&T Logo...



SBC's acquisition of AT&T is finally complete, and last week they launched the new AT&T logo. What do you think?

I like the way it looks - it's definitely more "AT&T" than "SBC," but it doesn't say anything to me. It just looks like the "Death Star" AT&T logo gussied up a bit and tilted on its axis.

Now, for SBC, anything is better than their dreadful logo:



But I don't see any SBC branding in this new logo at all. With the amount SBC has seemed to spend on national marketing over the past year, that would seem to me to be a mistake.

I blogged on the Sprint/Nextel new logo here, not realizing that it's main graphic is a representation of the "pin drop" (very cool once you see it). But the new Death Star doesn't tell us anything, other than AT&T is about world domination.

Love to hear other thoughts...

-aB

Friday, November 11, 2005

Gladwell's Blink To Be a Movie, With Leo...



The Tipping Point author Malcom Gladwell's latest book Blink is to be a movie.

And Leonardo DiCaprio will be the star in the adaptation of this best-selling non-fiction pseudo-business book.

Here's a snippet about the book:

"Blink," published in January, is a story about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. Author Malcolm Gladwell posited that when you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. "Blink" is a story about those two seconds when instant conclusions reached by people are really powerful, really important and, occasionally, really good.


Here's a snippet about the movie:

Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for writing the drugs saga "Traffic," is adapting and directing the Universal Pictures project... Gaghan's take is being kept under wraps.

The studio is shelling out $1 million for the rights from Gladwell, and is paying $2 million for Gaghan to write the screenplay. If the project goes forward, the entire deal could be worth upwards of $6 million.


This should be interesting. I'm sure Malcom Gladwell is pleased. I think it's an ok book (I blogged about it here in February) but not nearly as good as The Tipping Point.

-aB

Monday, November 07, 2005

Will People Pay For TV On Demand?



Both CBS and NBC have announced today that they've inked deals with cable providers to allow their most popular programs to be available for viewing on demand - for a fee.

Want to watch CSI or Law & Order, but time-shifted (and you don't own a TiVo or other DVR)? Got 99 cents? It's yours.

Here's a snippet from the story on MSN Money:

"You can't stop technology," said David Zaslav, president of NBC Universal Cable. "People are viewing content differently and this is going to happen."

NBC Universal and DirecTV, the biggest satellite broadcaster, have agreed to make top NBC programmes available through a new digital video recorder, DirecTV Plus, which is being made available at retailers this month. For 99 cents, viewers will be able to watch top shows without commercials.

In the deal with CBS and Comcast Corp, the biggest cable operator, popular television shows can, from January, be viewed after they are aired for 99 cents, but commercials will be included. The service will be available to more than 8m digital subscribers.

This comes on the heels of ABC's deal with Apple, allowing people to download Desperate Housewives thru Apple's iTunes onto the new video iPods.

The only redeeming aspect of the $0.99 deal is that viewers will be able to see edited, commercial-free versions of the programs.

So, will people pay for the convenience? Perhaps very, very short term. But I think this time-shifting ability is going to be the expected norm - for free - very soon.

-aB