Mediacom vs. Sinclair - the public fight continues

Mediacom, the cable company, and Sinclair, the TV conglomerate, are fighting in public again, just as they did three years ago. Mediacom is claiming on their website that Sinclair is trying to gouge its cable TV customers by overcharging the provider for the right to include its affiliate stations in its cable line-up.

A 3-year agreement between Mediacom and Sinclair ends December 31st and negotiations for a new agreement appear to have stalled over transmission consent fees.

HOW MUCH ARE WE TALKING HERE?

For a little perspective, on its website, Mediacom puts the demand amount at "millions", but neither party will provide a specific amount. AP reports puts the number of affected cable subscribers at 700,000 -- 400,000 of whom are in Iowa.

Let's do some rough guesswork. If Sinclair is demanding Mediacom fork over $5 Million a year, that's about 60 cents per month per cable customer. $5 M divided by 700,000 divided by 12 months. If 100 non-premium channels each charged 60 cents a month for every subscriber, that's about $60 in consent fees per cable viewer every month.

Consider also that Sinclair as more than $1 Billion in debt, nearly half of which is coming due in the next year and a half.

What strikes me in this battle is the utter lack of transparency on each party. What was the old rate? What's the new rate being demanded? What percentage of an increase would that represent? Neither are willing to have an honest debate out in the open.

Viewers who will be affected by losing a channel can complain to the cities' cable franchise liaisons and the bickering parties.

Santorum in Iowa

In political circles, being seen in Iowa is synonymous with a Presidential bid. Arriving at the Clear Channel Radio studios in Des Moines cements that notion.

When Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R) sat down with Jan Mickelson (WHO Radio), the question had to be asked. [Watch Windows Media]

Santorum also told a story of when he introduced the "Life Amendment" to No Child Left Behind and how he gained unwitting support from democrat Sen. Ted Kennedy. [Watch Windows Media]

Few Presidential contenders escape the Mickelson program escape without being asked to defend their stance on abortion and whether Roe v Wade is settled law. [Watch Windows Media]

Minimum wage increase generates anti-Obama buzz

Minimum wage is one of those touchy-feely Democratic issues that is supposed to take care of those who are mistreated by their thrifty employers, the same issue that is detested by Republicans, claiming it stifles small businesses and increases unemployment.

But in discussions about minimum wage, you hear few pundits compare minimum wage to a nominal 3% inflation rate (see chart right, showing 29 years of minimum wage vs. the 3% inflation curve).

In 2007, congress created the most recent amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act that resulted in this month's wage boost, however some are blaming the current administration for hurting small businesses through an increase put in place before the election.

If you look at minimum wage since 1980 -- when conservative Republican Ronald Reagan was elected President -- and plot where it should have tracked (through conservative economic incentives designed to produce growth in American industry), it always seems to trail inflation and economic growth by a significantly margin; the US Congress has to make substantial corrections to boost it toward, but never up to, a nominal inflation rate.

Health care workers and agricultural producers are barely getting by, if at all, and corporate CEOs are making tremendous gains.

Why is it that top-end wages have skyrocketed while those of the real laborers have declined or stagnated? In the land of opportunity, this is symbolic of the way opportunity tends to shift toward the wealthy and away from the actual producers and this is yet another example.

In 20 of the past 29 years, you hoped that Republicans would have used their power for the good of main street America, but instead have lined the pockets of their most important constituents; big business lobbyists and their crony political action organizations.

2009 Fair acts: Firefall, Headeast & Pure Prairie League

It's wanting to see shows like these that make me feel both old and nostalgic at the same time. See you old-timers there!

2009 Iowa state Fair, Budweiser Stage sponsored by ABC5:
- Firefall, Thu & Fri (Aug 13 & 14) @ 7:30 & 9:30
- Headeast, Sat & Sun (Aug 15 & 16) @ 7:30 & 9:30
- Pure Prairie League, Mon & Tue (Aug 18 & 18) @ 7:30 & 9:30

HD poorly implemented in Des Moines

Since the digital TV switchover last month, it has become clear that local television stations have not fully embraced their new hi-def capabilities.

Watching channel 8-1 this morning, it's obvious they still use their old standard definition video cameras in the news studio and are simply up-converting the signal to high definition; it's a blurry picture.

Same story for channel 13-1. But in addition to using older SD cameras, whenever they slap in their lower third ticker, they have to drop the 16:9 image back to a 4:3 aspect ratio. So they use SD to shoot news talent, up-convert to HD for a wide-screen shot, then reduce back to SD when using a ticker. Watching this in glorious 16:9 hi-def is a train wreck!

And it appears that channel 5-1 isn't even pretending to be an HD news shop. If it weren't for their low-end SD studio gear, I'd say this is better. Unfortunately, of the big 3, our local ABC affiliate's newscasts remain the most difficult to watch.

So what did we gain in the digital switchover? We do receive more channels (channel 5's retro feed of old TV shows and channel 8's all-weather source) and most prime time network shows are much more crisp. But sadly for analog set owners, many of the bugs and lower thirds are clipped at the far edges of the screen.

I can't imagine the expense of a full HD transition, so I forgive local stations for a gradual upgrade -- especially in the face of a recession and lower ad revenues -- but I sincerely hope station managers are watching and recognizing how hideous their product looks.

Shawn Johnson with Murph & Andy

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Shawn Johnson sat in with Murph & Andy on KXnO Monday.

DMR: Climate bill unfair to Iowa, utilities say

Burning fossil fuels is a fundamentally flawed plan when it destroys the landscape and detracts from quality of life -- saying nothing of what it may or may be doing to the environment at large. It just makes a lot more sense to intercept the existing energy all around us. Unless, of course, you have an enormous financial stake in traditional energy production and any of the supporting industries. The industry should want to modernize and be more efficient, but the reality is that it's been cheaper for them to pollute the air.

Every rooftop and back yard could have some form of energy collection, whether solar, wind or hydro. The initial costs are coming down and ongoing maintenance is relatively inexpensive compared to all of the oil refined and burned to deliver coal to consumers as energy -- however considerably less profitable for MidAmerican Energy.

Follow the money and use your common sense.

Bob Vander Plaats on Mickelson.

Bob Vander Plaats appeared on Jan Mickelson's show Thursday (6/18/2009) and explained his positions on a state constitutional amendment for banning same-sex marriage, legislative activism and the governor's power to use executive orders to remedy bad court decisions. Bill Salier was guest-hosting that day.

click here to download

Real estate sales: no good news

The local media has widely reported improved real estate sales from April to May of this year, citing figures furnish wholesale by the Des Moines Association of Realtors, the real estate lobby group.

Despite those claims, the Polk County Assessor's database shows there were 2,860 residential deeds issued in Polk County, Iowa in the last six months (Dec-May), compared with 4,013 issued during the same six month period a year earlier. That's a 29% drop, not an increase.

The total sales numbers for that period are even worse, suffering a 45% decline from more than $600 M last year down to about $400 M this year. And while realty agents are doing their best to stave off commodity pricing through incentive kickbacks and other perception management practices, even the average sale price took a dive from $152 K to $140 K, an 8% loss.

This look is a broader picture than the one being offered by the realty association because it covers six months, but even residential sales between April & May of this year (and compared to last year) look dismal.

While my research did involve only one county, can the picture for the greater metro look remarkably better? No matter how you slice & dice, there's nothing good in these numbers.

So what's the deal here? Are reporters too lazy to do their own research? Or is there a bigger menace lurking, like media influence? Or maybe I'm just wrong.

Everyone's a social media marketer. Not.

I hear a lot of social media marketing advice pointed at business and it's being circulated by people who've been around a long time. I suppose they're seasoned, and I imagine their audience feels they're adequately qualified.

Nevertheless, this is worth considering. Educated marketing managers have become dispensible comodities because every Joe thinks he's a marketing whiz and can take the reigns on a moment's notice. And largely due to the boardroom's GMOOT syndrome, they get their chance -- for about two years.

Still, almost without regard for the quality of the CMO, budgets often get fixed in the marketing dept. instead of examining the sales strategy.

Real estate numbers drop again

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the National Association of Realtors finds some good news in the realty market, but the real story for Polk County isn't good, according to the County Assessor's numbers.

Residential sales in terms of total sales in May of '09 compared with May of '08 figures are down by almost half. That's inline with the quantity of sales, reflecting 44% fewer sales. The average sale prices was 5% lower than last year's sale.

And the spring numbers aren't getting better, as we might expect. Instead, compared to April of this year, May sucked for real estate pros. A $10M drop in total sales, more than 100 fewer and average price fell by another $10k.

Those are the real numbers, provided by the Polk County Assessor, but don't expect NAR to advertise this fact with the media.