Alternative to Project Loon and SpaceX and others...

There is a lot of effort from various hi-tech companies (SpaceX, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Virgin, etc.) to bring access to the internet to the great unwashed of the world.  Whether you believe this is being done out of philanthropy, as a way to build communications systems for off planet enterprises or out of economic greed it is certainly an ambitious effort.

Google has Project Loon which works via balloons broadcasting LTE coverage over 40 square KMs (a REALLY dinky area) from their position floating in the stratosphere.  Elon Musk wants to put micro satellites in very low Earth orbit to handle this same task (so low that they are going to be built with the intention that they burn up after a very short lifespan).

I'm sure that someone smarter than me has already thought of this and must have a million reasons why it wouldn't work but...why not use already established, cheap, technology to solve the vast majority of this problem by ship...

More than 40% of the world's population lives within 60 miles of the coast and is growing bigger all the time.  An even higher concentration of the world's wealth lives within that coastal zone.  So rather than spending the money and effort on space or near space efforts to reach 100% of the world's population, why not part some boats in international waters with satellite connections to the free world's internet system and broadcast that signal inland...Hell, if you want to spend money of the effort, make the ship a nuclear one so it can sit there and provide coverage indefinately.  It makes these ships a major floating target for beligerant militaries but...its seems to me to be an overlooked option for these companies looking to tap new markets quickly and cheaply...

Edit to add:  After thinking about this for a couple days...why bother with a ship?  How bout just lay a cable across the ocean floor, chain a floating transmitter to the ocean floor just off the coast of Akra and call it a day?  Seems like a lot simpler solution than thousands of micro-satellites in constantly decaying orbits...

Global RallyCross and Offroad Motorsports Ratings for 8/2/14 & 8/3/14

Though there are some positives to take away from this past weekend's GRC broadcast rating, the bottom line is that it reinforces its status as a marginal TV product for prime sports viewing hours.

Admittedly, this past Sunday's show was not a live race, nor even a tape delayed one.  Instead it was a recap of the first five events of the season packaged into a neat hour and a half, edited down format.
On network TV it was competing directly against golf over on CBS.  Most concerning here is its ratings within the middle of NBC's motorsports/Red Bull oriented shows with a Mecum auto auction related and a Red Bull sponsored multi-sport adventure in Patagonia programs preceding GRC and brief show on Kurt Busch's attempt at the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 double coming after.

The GRC broadcast failed to hold the lead-in 0.4 ratings of a car auction or cross country trek and failed to support the 0.5 rating of the KB program.  Given NBC already had a full hour of the KB special in the tank (they would broadcast it the following day on NBCSN) they probly are kicking themselves for not running a full hour or more of that and cutting back on the GRC broadcast--though this is likely mitigated by the money Red Bull paid NBC for the airtime, perhaps Red Bull paid NBC more for the airtime than NBC could have sold the advertising space for on an extended KB show...perhaps.

On the positive side...the in house produced World of X Games surfing event and MLS soccer game on NBC both also saw 0.3 ratings so Red Bull can at least say--Hey, we'll pay you to put on our broadcast which will likely grab the same ratings as these other programs that YOU have to pay to produce.

So the 8/3 GRC broadcast saw some 347,000 households watching with an estimated 381,500 actual viewers.  Ratings for GRC's broadcasts for the year now are as follows:

5/24--0.4
6/22--0.3
7/20--0.5
7/26--0.3
8/3--0.3

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
World of X Games: ASP Surfing	8/2	ABC	3:00-4:00pm	0.3
"ESPN Sports Saturday"	8/2	ABC	4:00-6:00pm	0.5
"PGA Tour 2014: Playing With A Purpose"	8/2	CBS	1:00-2:00pm	0.5
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational: Third Round	8/2	CBS	2:00-6:00pm	1.9
MLS: Galaxy-Timbers	8/2	NBC	3:00-5:00pm	0.3
Breeders' Cup Challenge: Whitney Handicap	8/2	NBC	5:00-6:30pm	0.6
Guinness Int'l Champions Cup: Manchester United-Real Madrid	8/2	Fox	4:00-6:00pm	0.6
"PGA Championship Preview: This Is Major"	8/3	CBS	1:00-2:00pm	0.6
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational: Final Round	8/3	CBS	2:00-6:00pm	3.1
Mecum Dealmakers	8/3	NBC	2:00-3:00pm	0.4
"Red Bull: Project Acheron: Patagonia"	8/3	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	0.4
"Global Rallycross: Season Review"	8/3	NBC	4:00-5:30pm	0.3
"Kurt Busch 36"	8/3	NBC	5:30-6:00pm	0.5
Pro Football HOF Game: Giants-Bills	8/3	NBC	8:15-11:00pm	5.8

Mint 400, LOORRS and AMA Motocross TV Ratings From 7/5 and 7/6

 
Well, this was certainly a busy weekend for offroad motorsports fans.  Just on full Network TV there was the AMA Motocross race at Red Bud in Buchananm MI on Saturday from 3-4PM with NBC, then there was an hour worth of LOORRS coverage on CBS on Sunday and the big event of the weekend was the two hour broadcast of Mad Media's presentation of the '14 Mint 400 within the Red Bull Signature Series on NBC from 2-4PM.

The ratings for all three are right in line with historical offroad racing on the big networks.  The lowest rated broadcast was the LOORRS event on CBS that grabbed a 0.3 rating, equaling the Nick Faldo golf program also on CBS this weekend for the lowest rated sports event in the period but still equating to a 347,000 households viewing the show and close to 400,000 viewers of the program and its advertising.

The AMA Motocross event from RedBud on Saturday had a 0.4 rating.  I haven't really tracked motocross ratings in the past so I'm not sure how this compares historically but I will try and note their ratings going forward.  The 0.4 equates to some 462,000 households watching the rhythm sections and tabletops with in excess of 509,000 pairs of eyeballs tuned in for the broadcast.

The two hour long Mint 400 broadcast on NBC from 2-4PM on 7/6 produced a 0.4 rating, similar to that of the Motocross event with 462,000 households and 509,000 (conservative estimate) viewing the event.  Of note here is that the first hour of this broadcast overlapped with the LOORRS broadcast over on CBS.  There is certainly a crossover factor here the likely drew viewers away from each show depressing the ratings for each.  Viewed in aggregate for offroad motorsports however, it shows a solid audience of like minded viewers.  On this past Sunday afternoon there were at least 810,000 households and just shy of 1,000,000 people watching either shortcourse offroad racing or desert racing at the same time across the country--an amount that equals or exceeds the number of people viewing either the Men's or Women's Wimbeldon finals or Tour de France highlights.

That's pretty damn cool...

ELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
FIFA World Cup quarterfinal: Argentina-Belgium	7/5	ABC	12:00-2:00pm	n/a
"SportsCenter"	7/5	ABC	2:00-3:00pm	2.0
Wimbledon: Ladies' Final: Petra Kvitova d. Genie Bouchard (replay)	7/5	ABC	3:00-6:00pm	0.7
"Faldo Series: The Time Is Now"	7/5	CBS	2:30-3:00pm	0.3
PGA Tour: Greenbrier Classic: Third Round	7/5	CBS	3:00-6:00pm	1.1
MLB: (regional)	7/5	Fox	7:00-10:15pm	1.6
Tour de France: Stage 1 highlights	7/5	NBC	2:00-3:00pm	0.4
AMA Motocross	7/5	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	0.4
World Series of Fighting	7/5	NBC	4:00-6:00pm	0.5
Wimbledon: Gentlemen's Final: Novak Djokovic d. Roger Federer (replay)	7/6	ABC	3:00-6:00pm	0.7
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing	7/6	CBS	2:00-3:00pm	0.3
PGA Tour: Greenbrier Classic: Final Round	7/6	CBS	3:00-6:00pm	1.8
Red Bull Signature Series: Mint 400 (off-road racing)	7/6	NBC	2:00-4:00pm	0.4
Tour de France: Stage 2 highlights	7/6	NBC	4:00-6:00pm	0.5

Aereo Heads To The Supreme Court Next Week...

Aereo is a very interesting company that may become very disruptive to your traditional cable companies and thus is under a huge amount of scrutiny from the Powers That Be at the moment.  Comcast and other broadcasting behemoths would like nothing better than to put Aereo completely out of business.

Which is exactly what may happen next week when the traditional broadcasters see their case against Aereo presented before the Supreme Court.  To date the lower courts have almost universally upheld Aereo's position that it is providing private broadcasts to individuals at their specific request in their homes vs. the Broadcasters claims that Aereo is stealing their signal and making money off that signal's rebroadcast to consumers.



What Aereo does is actually a fairly simple concept to grasp.  Essentially they locate thousands of "bunny ears" in a single location that are all controlled by the end consumer.  The consumer logs into their computer (or TV for that matter) and directs the said bunny ears to tune themselves to a particular TV station that is broadcast over the air (say your local NBC affiliate).  That signal is then sent to your device (be it phone, TV, computer) over the internet in all its HD glory.  Really no different that a pair of bunny ears located REALLY far away from you and a really long wire attaching your device to them.  For this service Aereo charges $12 a month.

Obviously the big Broadcasters HATE this as they typically have you locked into paying near $200 or more a month for your "bundle" which includes tons of content you don't want (BET?  Univision?  Oprah?  No thank you!).  Allowing consumers to pick their content cafeteria style is their ultimate horror show and this is one step in that direction.

So it comes to the Supreme Court to decide whether innovation will be allowed in the industry or if the ability to build a better mouse trap should be squashed because of the Big Money Boys with an archaic distribution system.  Bet you left wingers are hoping for that free-market capitalism opinion to come through loud and clear for once huh?  Nothing brings people together like their hatred for their cable company....

Movie Review: The Challenger Disaster

This was a TV movie that was broadcast this past Saturday evening on both the Science Channel and the Discovery Channel as well as earlier this year on the BBC as this latter network was one of the producers.

It covers the research into the terminal failure of the Challenger space shuttle from the perspective of physicist Richard Feynman.  I knew of Feynman for a long time as my father had mentioned him in the past as a brilliant man from NYC whom he had the pleasure of taking some classes/lectures with.

It is only of late that I have come to know Feynman and his work in general in an expanded nature.  To say he belongs with luminaries such as Einstein and Hawking is not hyperbole and in bringing the understanding of physics to the unwashed masses he may have no equal.  Few scientists could imagine their lives being bookended by such remarkable events as Feynman--in his VERY early 20's he was a principal scientist on the Manhattan Project rubbing shoulders with Oppenheimer, Bohr, Bethe, Teller, etc. and at the end of his life his work on bringing to light the causes of the Challenger Disaster put him on TV in front of millions looking for an explanation as to the single most psyche searing event in American history since the JFK/MLK assassinations 25 years earlier.

Its this last event in Feynman's life that this film shows.  As a decided outsider and lacking in societies "niceties" Feynman isn't concerned with his own career or standing in Washington circles.  He amongst all the individuals of the commission tasked with looking into the event was willing to look into the cracks (literally) and crevices of the shuttle program where money and politics mixed into a cauldron of indecision, cronyism and failure.

The film is well acted by William Hurt as Feynman, Bruce Greenwood as General Donald Kutnya and Brian Dennehy as William Rogers (head of the commission) and while not an "intense" thriller it does move along and capture the tension between the multiple interests represented by all sides--military, NASA, Washington politicians, manufacturing industry, etc.  The stress is built up until at the optimal moment, it cracks and the truth is forced to the surface and revealed on national TV.

Well paced, extremely informative and touching--watching Feynman struggle for solutions to the questions raised by the Challenger disaster while pissing blood and missing his family as his cancer ridden body fails him, is good stuff.

If you have a chance to watch this film in either its rebroadcasts on Discovery or the Science Channel or on demand or streaming online, I recommend it highly.  Its not "Hollywood" whiz-bang film making but its definitely worth your time and interest.

Stadium Super Trucks Initial 4/14 Ratings

Given the new TV relationship with NBC and being its initial broadcast, its very interesting to take a look at Robby Gordon's ratings for the Stadium Super Trucks race two weekends ago.  These are the FINAL ratings for these broadcasts and not the "overnight" ratings which are a bit less precise.  I believe these ratings would also include those individuals who may have DVR'd the broadcast and watched it within a day or two of the original broadcast.  I also don't have to use my usual estimate of # of viewers as it is provided for us--though I don't know how it is calculated...

Stadium Super Trucks garnered a 0.4 rating which is right in line with what we have seen over the past few years for LOORRS or TORC broadcasts on CBS and other major networks.  Also in line with the recent TORC/LOORRS broadcasts is the number of viewers which stood at 596,000 for this first Stadium Super Trucks show.  Of note is that this figure is more than DOUBLE what F1 races are seeing for viewership on the NBC Sports network on a COMBINED basis (both live early in the morning and on its rebroadcast later in the day).  So if I was Robby's marketing team, THAT is an item I would be heavily focusing on.  Full ratings from the weekend are below.



TELECAST DATE NET TIME (ET) RAT. VIEWERS (000)

The Masters: Final Round 4/14 CBS 2:00-7:00pm 9.4 14,700
The Masters: Third Round 4/13 CBS 3:00-7:00pm 5.8 8,500
NRA 500 (Texas) 4/13 Fox 7:49-11:20pm 3.8 6,269
NBA: Bulls-Heat 4/14 ABC 1:00-3:45pm 2.1 3,009
MLB: (regional) 4/13 Fox 4:00-7:00pm 1.8 2,500
"Masters Playoffs" 4/13 CBS 2:00-3:00pm 1.1 n/a
"Jim Nantz Remembers Augusta" 4/14 CBS 1:00-2:00pm 1.0 n/a
"NBA Countdown" 4/14 ABC 12:30-1:00pm 0.9 1,243
Liga MX: Leon-Club America 4/13 Telem. 9:00-11:04pm 0.5 975
Horse Racing: Blue Grass Stakes 4/13 NBC 4:30-6:00pm 0.7 935
NHL: Blackhawks-Blues 4/14 NBC 12:30-3:00pm 0.7 933
AMA Supercross 4/14 CBS 12:00-1:00pm 0.7 n/a
Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular 4/14 NBC 4:00-6:00pm 0.6 914
Liga MX: CD Guadalajara-Atlante 4/14 Telem. 5:55-8:00pm 0.4 726
"ESPN Sports Saturday" 4/13 ABC 4:00-6:00pm 0.5 611
Speed Golf World Championships 4/13 CBS 1:00-2:00pm 0.5 n/a
Stadium Super Trucks 4/14 NBC 3:00-4:00pm 0.4 596
Heads-Up Poker Championship 4/13 NBC 2:30-4:30pm 0.5 571