BATTLE STUDIES

John Mayer's fourth studio album is all about his relationship with Jennifer Aniston. Battle Studies (as if the title doesn't give it away) is an album about nasty break ups. The songs are about as bitter as you can be while going through a break up. Here are some of the titles of the tracks off the album: Heartbreak Warfare, Assassins, Friends, Lovers or Nothing, War Of My Life....sounds like a break up album to me. Not exactly the happy, love struck tracks from Mr. Mayer's previous albums.

If this is what going out with Jennifer Aniston is like, EEEK! That said, Battle Studies is a very good album. I really like the songs Heartbreak Warfare, Half of my Heart, Who Says, War Of My Life, Edge of Desire, and Do You Know Me.

For anyone who has ever been through a break up (and who hasn't), to say that you can relate to this album is an understatement. Personally, I haven't been through a break up this bad, but I understand where he's coming from. (And I will definitely take Jennifer Aniston's list of lovers - Brad Pitt and John Mayer - now that's what a I call an ex list).

The true test of any break up is who comes out on top. Jennifer Aniston is a true talent and outstanding comedienne. While Courtney Cox has her own TV show, only Jennifer Aniston has managed to become a major movie star post FRIENDS. And she deserves it. The trailer for Ms. Aniston's next movie looks like a big flop (The Bodyguard). Whereas with Battle Studies, John Mayer is doing his very first all arena tour selling out 20,000 seat venues all over the U.S. and internationally.

Believe me, I will be scanning the audience on Thursday, March 25th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to see if Jennifer Aniston is front row center to hear the album that is all about her.

NINE IS THE BEST MOVIE OF 2009

Of the 10 films that will be nominated this year, my early prediction is that Up In The Air will win Best Picture of 2009. For me though, the Best Picture of 2009 is Nine. Nine is a beautiful movie. The film is shot all over Italy, so the setting could not be more picturesque and romantic. Even though it's a musical, there are only a few songs that really stand out. The lighting, set and costumes will all get nominations. There's so much going on in the film that I have to see it again.

As I've said in a previous blog, Daniel Day Lewis is the best actor working today. And he can actually sing, which was an even bigger surprise. Although Nine is the story of man, it is a film about women. Mother, Lover, Mistress, Wife, One Night Stand, Girlfriend, Friend, Muse, Whore - they are all present and all representing a different aspect of this man's life. He loves them all, but cannot be with just one of them. Some of the women love him, some used to love him, some are too deep in love, while others are falling out of love. Nine is about love in all of the forms that it can take in a man's life.

What I like most about the film that is missing from films today is that Nine is about real love, not the kind of love you see in your typical Hollywood romance. Up In The Air had the same quality. You think it's going to work out for them, but, just like real life - things don't always work out like they do in a film. There is no "Happily Ever After", just After.

Without a doubt, Nine is most emotionally resonant film of the year for me.

AVATAR IS A GAME CHANGER

No less than Steven Spielberg called Avatar, "The most evocative and amazing science-fiction movie since 'Star Wars'." And he's right. Avatar is a game changer. It is truly a movie unlike any other. A game changer for 3D and motion pictures on a global scale.

The world that James Cameron has created is mindblowing in its detail. Every tree, leaf, flower, mountain and creature, and even the ground has been thought about and fully realized. The true genius in the movie is the emotional depth of the Na'vi, the humanoids who inhabit the world of Pandora. With their large eyes and long faces, I have never seen such realistic aliens rendered with such an emotional range. And therein lies the genius. In order for the movie to work, the audience has to believe these are really humanoid aliens. That's why both Hulk movies didn't work with audiences. The Hulk was so poorly rendered as a digital creature that the audience couldn't form an emotional connection to the Hulk. So as an audience member, you didn't care about what happened to him as a creature. The Hulk was more caricature than character. Not so with Avatar. Their lips looked like human lips, their eyelids looked human. The movie is 3/4 aliens on Pandora and 1/4 humans in a their futuristic environment. And to pull off a movie like that truly shows that James Cameron is visionary director unlike any other director currently working in the 21st century. Every single dollar of the $350 million that was spent is up there on the screen. I always think it is so pretentious when any director is quoted as saying, "I had to wait for technology to catch up with my genius mind and ideas for this movie to be made." This is the first time I have found that statement to be true.

And while the movie is action packed and visually stunning, Avatar is a very predictable movie. Every plot twist and turn is telegraphed way ahead of time. It's like Titanic all over again - you know the ship is going to sink. With Avatar, you know what's going to happen a long time before it occurs and exactly how the movie is going to end. Although their is plenty of magic in the world of the movie, the script is formulaic and with a paint by numbers quality to it. That doesn't mean it's not a good movie, but the fact that you know everything that's coming up does take away from some of the enjoyment of the film. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be seen, it definitely should. Expect to get carried away in the film to a world unlike any other, but as far as story goes - cinematicly "going native" has been done better on film ("Dances With Wolves").

My only other criticism of the film is that the bad guys in the film are the humans, us. As an audience member, it put me in the very awkward position of routing against my own species. It was bizarre to hear other audience members (not me) cheering when the humans were being attacked and killed. (Then again, I did see the movie with a Floridian audience.....).

And yes, the film had a very timely eco-friendly, environmental message to it. But the audacity of the film is that Americans always root for the natives. And that's strange. The U.S. is always the aggressor with the superior technology and overwhelming firepower, and yet, we always cheer for the underdogs. It's a strange dichotomy.

That said, go see Avatar in 3D. It's unlike anything you've ever seen before.

I'M EXCITED TO GO BACK TO FLORIDA!?!?!?

I know, I know, I can't believe what I'm typing either, but it's true. I'm really looking forward to spending 2 weeks in Florida.

The first week will be Christmas with my family. And what's Santa bringing down the non-functional chimney this year? Turns out its a .45 or a .38! Gee, just what I always wanted! That's right boys and girls, I'm going to the gun range for Christmas! Sometime over the Christmas holidays, my parents and I are having a family outing to shoot real guns at a real gun range. Awesome! My parents (and all of their friends) have decided that the economy is so bad that people will inevitably turn to home invasions to make their money and my parents and the rest of the baby boomers are armed and ready for them! You gotta love Tea Party Republicans. And I'll have to keep a count of how many broadside hits I take because of "my" President. ("Well, you voted him.")

Seriously, it will be nice to spend a week with my parents, go to Hooter's for dinner, start working on my tan, catch up with them, discuss real estate options, get some home cooked meals, take the motorboat out on the bay and the Gulf of Mexico, watch a ton of movies in the cinema so I'm fully caught up by the time I get back to LA., and get reacquainted with as much of real America as I can possibly take.

I'm also really excited to return to Miami for New Year's weekend. Although I've only been gone for 6 months, I know a lot has changed. There are new clubs, new bars, new restaurants and new shopping centers that have opened up. I am looking forward to seeing what the new tenant has done with my condo. I want to see how the recession is effecting Miami. I'm looking forward to seeing my former co-workers at Warner Bros. Miami and catching up with old friends. I can't wait to spend as much as possible on the beach, get some sun, and listen to the waves crashing in the background. It may be too cold to go in the ocean, but maybe I'll jump in at least once.

I really miss Miami. It's a beautiful city filled with party people and I had a great life there. Going back as a tourist for the first time will be a bit odd. But at least I will know my way around. And New Year's in Miami is always a festive time of year. Nearly every hotel is sold out for the weekend. And I can't wait to go shopping. Not only will I get to hit the outlet malls with massively discounted after Christmas sales, but the 7% sales tax will be so much better than the 10% sales tax in California. I need new suits, new work shoes, new work shirts and some jeans. The weather looks to be in the 80's, so hopefully I'll be able to come back to LA with a tan. Moving back to LA was definitely the right career move. And keeping the condo in Miami is definitely the right lifestyle choice. I would gladly make Miami one of the cities I either teach or retire in.

Even though I was born, raised and educated in Massachusetts, between my parents on the west coast and my condo (the only home I owe), on the east coast, Florida will feel like going home again.....

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?

As I was walking the floor of the LA Auto Show last weekend, probably the slickest and most unique car that I saw was the 2010 Lexus LFA. The Lexus LFA is a very stylized car for Toyota's luxury brand and the car is definitely ultra luxury, and here's why - it cost $375,000!!! WTF?!?!?

Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful car. Apparently Toyota had it in development for 6 years and at $375,000, I cannot see how Toyota will make a profit on the car. The LFA is powered by a 4.8L V10 engine that dishes out 552 bhp. The much power allows the car to hit 62 mph from a standstill in 3.7 seconds and go all the way to 202 mph. (From Googling, I'm not this much of a car freak). But come on, $375,000!!!

A car is depreciating asset. I cannot imagine what the depreciation is on a $375,000 Lexus, but I imagine it's pretty steep. Car payment? Auto Insurance? They must be through the roof. And on top of that think of the constant worrying. Should I park it on the street? Do I dare give it to the valet? Should I use that car wash? Who's going to steal it?

And really, $375,000 is money better spent on a house, not spent on a car. If I had that kind of money, you can be sure I wouldn't be spending it on a Lexus. I would definitely buy a Bentley convertible, or a Ferrari or a top of the line Barbus Mercedes, but definitely not on a Lexus.

APPLE MOVES INTO THE CLOUD

It had been rumored for about 2 weeks, and then this week, it happened. Apple acquired a music company called Lala. Lala is a web based music streaming service. You select your music artists, and Lala matches the artists to the music you've already downloaded, giving you complete access to your music library (stored on your computer) on, and putting it up in the cloud. Lala's music matching service lets you use any web browser anywhere in the world and have access to your entire music collection any day, any where, any time. Not that big of deal? I would beg to differ, not only is Apple moving into the cloud and giving consumers a jukebox in the sky, but it's also very interesting what it means for the future of the music industry (since Apple is the Walmart of music retailers now). Even more interesting is what it says about consumer choice.

ITunes is a classic walled garden, like the old AOL. You can only buy music from ITunes. ITunes is not compatible with any other service, and, as I've complained about before, it is not easy or convenient to move your purchased music from device (IPod) to device (IPhone). Apple has begun to plan for the future by moving its music service ITunes on the web by merging it with Lala's proprietary technology. The most interesting part of this whole acquisition is just that, Apple NEVER makes acquisitions. For Apple, when it comes to build or buy, Apple always builds. But by buying Lala, this means Apple wants to get ITunes onto the web quickly and buying was the fastest way to do that.

What does it mean for consumers? Well, Apple is stealing Pandora's business model. When ITunes was first released, it meant the music was going to be all about consumer choice. ITunes and the IPod revolutionized the personalization of music. From now on for the consumer, music was exclusively going to be about singular personalization. You could create your own playlist, listen to any track of any song you owned or ripped at any time, basically, you were your own DJ all the time. Apple saved the music industry with ITunes. Prior to ITunes, pirating music was fun, fast, cool, and easy. (Legal Side Bar - Don't steal music, movies, TV shows, or anything else illegally off the web). And ITunes worked for a number of years, but now there is a new generation of kids and teenagers who grew up with ITunes as one of their musical selections, but ITunes had 2 problems: 1. It cost money to buy songs, and kids are cheap and poor and 2. You could only listen to ITunes from your laptop, which you would have to lug around with you everywhere you went.

Pandora's business model, while I'm sure it's not very profitable, is a more compelling statement on consumer choice. Like Google, it's free, which is great, since it removes the pay element. But freedom does have a price when it comes to music. On Pandora's web based free music streaming, you can listen to most songs by your favorite artist, but Pandora would also suggest and play other artists similar to your favorite musician while also playing your favorite artist. Pandora does play commercials on its free web streaming service. And Pandora is highly portable because all you needed was a web browser and your favorite musical artist can go with you anywhere with you without you having to take your computer. The ease and portability combined with free (with restrictions) music, was too tempting for anyone to not use. With Pandora, the consumer model went from ITunes hyper personalization to the consumer giving up some choice and some control in return for free music, sampling other artists music, expanding their musical horizons, and unlimited portability. The music business is evolving yet again.

For Apple, the IPhone and ITouch (which itself has evolved into a portable gaming and web browsing platform), Apple must have taken notice that consumers are using internet radio apps to simply stream music onto their IPhones & ITouches. Consumers are slowing moving into the cloud without even realizing it. As a consumer why would I store all of my music on my IPhone or ITouch when I can simply store other media (TV shows, Apps, Movies) on my IPhone or ITouch, save space and stream music off the internet for free? The entire concept of not being able to stream your ITunes downloads off the internet is a rising concern that Apple has wisely identified before it becomes a major competitive threat and Apple has made a smart strategic decision to rapidly move into that space.

My prediction is that Apple will release a new version of ITunes this summer using Lala's technology (now Apples) and allow you to access all of the songs on your ITunes library via any web browser anywhere in the world at any time. While Microsoft may hold market share, it is increasing looking like Apple and Google are going to end up fighting for consumers in the cloud.

http://www.lala.com/ http://www.pandora.com/

DOWNTOWN LA

After 6 months in LA, I finally made it downtown. Downtown LA has changed quite a bit since I was last there 5 years ago. I was killing 2 social commitments with 1 trip downtown, and I wasn't driving or parking, so it was well worth it. The first reason for my downtown trip was the LA Auto Show. I really like the LA Auto Show. I've been going to auto shows either in Miami or LA for the last 10 years. While everyone has their reason for going to any auto show, I have 2: 1. I LOVE the concept cars. Concept cars rarely made, but always so futuristic and cool. At this year's LA Auto Show, only BMW had an incredible looking concept car. 2. I am eagerly awaiting the first 2 door hybrid hard top convertible. No sign of it yet, but I was looking.

After the auto show it was dinner at Rock N Fish, one of the 10 new restaurants at the Nokia Live concert venue right next to the Staples Center. The city has really tried to make downtown LA into an entertainment destination downtown. The trees were decorated for the Christmas season. The LA Kings were playing a hockey game at the Staples Center, the LA Auto Show as at the LA Convention Center and after the auto show and dinner, it was off to the Stevie Wonder/Jonas Brothers Holiday Toy Concert at Nokia Live. Now there's a double bill I thought I would never see, a Motown legend and the biggest boy band in the country right now. Nokia Live is a great space to see concerts. Nokia Live is the best indoor concert space in LA. (LA has the best outdoor concert spaces in the United States, from the Greek Theater to the Henry Ford Theater and the mother of all outdoor concert spaces - the Hollywood Bowl).

Stevie Wonder sounds as good as he always have and I love seeing musical legends playing their hits with some Christmas carols thrown in for good measure. Stevie let himself go. He's now Aretha Franklin big. The Jonas Bros. also played their hits and the girls would scream their heads off the entire song, all set long. I almost lost my hearing.

Downtown LA is very similar to downtown Miami. There was a lot of overbuilding and what were once condos are now apartments. And also just like downtown Miami, there's not a lot of infrastructure to support living downtown. Although I haven't seen it, I heard there is 1 grocery store in downtown LA. The Ritz Carlton is about to open a huge hotel in April 2010 and the Marriott also is about to open their hotel right next door. Now why someone thinks LA needs 3,000 hotel rooms I'll never know. But LA wants to attract all that lucrative convention business once the economy bounces back.

Also just like downtown Miami, downtown LA is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

WHY CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM IS THE BEST COMEDY ON TV

In 1996 when Larry David left Seinfeld at its peak, everyone in the TV industry thought he was insane. Why would anyone leave a TV show that was the most popular television show of the 1990's? Seinfeld wasn't just a TV show, it was an American cultural icon.

Larry David left Seinfeld and in 2000 created Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO. Curb was a fictional, slightly skewed and Hollywoodized version of Larry David's life. Curb was an evolution of Seinfeld, only HBO allowed for much racier jokes and language. Most episodes have always been fall down funny. And most of the cast of Seinfeld has been on the show for their own episodes. But the 7th season of Curb was all about Larry trying to win his wife back by working on a Seinfeld reunion show. And believe me, the season's finale of Curb is the only place you're going to see a Seinfeld reunion.

What's great about the Curb is that Larry David had to write a probable set up for a Seinfeld reunion, successfully balance the "reality" of Curb with all of its characters and put in 3 of the most recognizable actors in the history of television (Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis Dreyfus and Jason Alexander) into the show as well. It's a talent balancing act of epic proportions. Not just the story, the season, and the actors, but the weight and expectation of living up a Seinfeld reunion (especially since the Seinfeld finale - written by Larry David, was such a let down. The only worse series finale in television was The Sopranos). And I have to say, Larry David pulled it off brilliantly.

The treat to the audience at the end was about 10 minutes of The Seinfeld Reunion show. It was so good to see those characters again and see how they were living in New York City in 2009. Seinfeld was as funny as ever.

Anyone who's a Curb enthusiast (as I imagine they would be called) should note that there are no writers on the show. It truly speaks to Larry David's genius that he just sketches out what he wants in each scene of each episode and then leaves it to his cast and guest stars to write up the dialogue and improvise it on the show. Actors hate improvising. I don't know how he does it, but those actors and comedians trust him enough to allow them to be funny and they are.

Now let's see if Larry David can creatively top himself once again on Season 8 of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

AT SPAGO IN BEVERLY HILLS.....

Yesterday one of our vendors had a Holiday Party for all its International TV Research clients at Spago in Beverly Hills. The party was fun, the conversation interesting and I had a real revelation about my career trajectory.

First of all, this recession is only halfway over. 2010 is going to be better than 2009, but not by much. There's a whole other wave of misery coming in 2010. For example, I was out at yet another holiday party last weekend and ran into a friend of mine I haven't seen since I moved back to LA. He's an indie actor, who has a 4 bedroom home and he's renting to roommates in 3 of the other bedrooms. And even with 3 bedrooms rented, he's fending off foreclosure. In New York over Thanksgiving I met this really nice couple. Both were working, one got laid off and the other doesn't make enough money to keep their Manhattan apartment. They may need to move to another city, because NYC is too expensive. Another friend of mine was a senior vice president making good money, got laid off and nice severance package, didn't cut down on going out to restaurants, vacations, or the expensive gym membership. She turned down some Director level positions because they were a big pay cut and she thought better offers would come along. I mean, she was a highly skilled, very competent SVP with an MBA. 8 months later, the money's almost gone, the offers have dried up, and she doesn't know what she's going to do.....and the horror stories go on and on.....

Getting back to lunch at Spagos....all of the other studio's international research teams were there. I brought my 3 employees, for a total of 4 Warner Bros. employees. The set ups at FOX and NBC Universal are about the same, a Vice President leading the international research department with a Director and 1 or 2 Analysts. This summer, the other 2 VP's and I had a side conversation about our futures. We decided that 1 of us needed to get to the Senior VP level and that would give impetus for the other studios to elevate the rest of us to SVP. A good plan, and I'm definitely on board. But then I realized something. The VP of International Research at FOX is 52 or 53. The VP of International Research is 46 or 48. The VP of International Research at Sony (who was not present) is 43 or so. Of my peer group, I'm the youngest VP of International Research at 38 (39 by the end of the month).

What the may be the worse recession any of may see in our lifetime has taught me 2 very important lessons. 1. No job, no matter how long you have been in it, is a given. And 2. Plan for the next phase of your life/career.

I'm 39 in 2010. I want to work at Warner Bros. for as long as I possibly can, at least the next 15-20 years, which brings me to between 55-60. At that time horizon, I will definitely make it to Senior VP and maybe even Executive Vice President by the end of my entertainment career. In this recession one of the largest groups fired from their jobs were highly skilled workers in their 40's or 50's. Companies simply fired them and then rehired equivalent workers at a much lower salary. So as I approach my 40's and 50's I'm keenly aware of this fact. I need to start planning now for the second phase of my career and that's where teaching comes in.

Beginning this January, I'm co-teaching a course on the future of media and television at UCLA. Granted, it's not a paid position yet, but I do get to add Visiting Assistant Professor at UCLA's Film and Television School to my resume. My plan after working at Warner Bros. is to leave the entertainment industry entirely and enter higher education. With the past as a cautionary tale, and in an uncertain economic future, we all need a back up plan that needs to be executed now to prepare for the future.

THE GOD GENE

I recently read a fascinating article in the New York Times about the God Gene. While the article gives a fair and balanced account of the both the pros and cons of the science that religion is hard wired into our genetics, it does make some sense.

Throughout history, as long as there has been man, there has been God. What's interesting to me is the evolution of religion from a polytheistic to now a monotheistic perspective in modern times. And an even larger evolution in religion having taken place over the last 2000 years, where if your god wasn't humanized (Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Dali Lama), then you're religion seems in decline in the world today.

Regardless of how religious you are or are not, it's an interesting read: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/weekinreview/12wade.html?scp=1&sq=god%20gene&st=cse

NOW THIS IS HOW YOU REMAKE A TELEVISION SHOW

While this TV season has seen many great shows, one of the hardest and least successful ideas in television is remaking an old series. (This is almost as unsuccessful as TV series being made into theatrical features, but that's for another blog....).

TV shows are very emblematic of their times. The stories, the themes, the costumes, all need to speak to today's contemporary audiences. For example, right now, almost every TV show has acknowledged the recession and how it's effecting all of their characters. Flash forward 20 years later when we're in an economic upswing, and those recession stories just seem dated.

V has a very interesting history. It was originally conceived as "what if" story. What if the United States was invaded by the Nazi's? For obvious reasons, that plot was reconfigured as an alien invasion. Same story, just made for TV. After a successful 4 hour miniseries in 1983, V was followed up by an even more successful 6 hour miniseries in 1984. After a hit that big, the obligatory TV series followed. It was horrible and was cancelled after 1 season.

Now in 2009 comes another V series. And this series is good. Same premise, but with a terrorism slant that totally works. It's much harder than it looks to remake a TV series. Just look at 90210 or Melrose Place.

THE NBCU-COMCAST IS A BAD MERGER

"One of the world's largest media companies." "Promises consumers new and high speed digital delivery of content." "A perfectly complementary set of assets." Those the headlines used to describe the NBCU/Comcast merger this week? And they are also the exact same headlines used to describe the AOL Time Warner merger back in January of 2000. Granted the AOL/TW merger was an internet play and this is a cable driven merger, but that's besides the point. It's a great deal for GE and poor move for Comcast.

For GE, it's a great deal. GE gets to offload some debt into the new company, as well as get a cash payout of $6 billion, even though most of that goes directly to Vivendi for their 5% stake in the company (and speaking of bad deals, the Universal/Vivendi merger was another bad idea). GE sheds a non-core low growth asset for a profit in this economy, so its a good deal if you're a GE shareholder.

It's a different story at Comcast. Comcast rolls its cable channels (E! Style, G4, Golf, etc.) together with NBCU's cable networks (CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, USA, SyFy, etc.) and that's makes good business sense. Cable has long been the growth engine of NBCU. But look what else Comcast gets...They get the #4 network in primetime with the most failed TV strategy of the season with The Jay Leno Show. The same goes for the NBC O&O stations. Theme park attendance is down due to the recession. The movie studio's entire summer was flop after flop - remember Land of the Lost or Funny People - flop, flop. The advertising market is still down significantly in the United States. Basically, every other piece of the NBCU empire, except cable, is low growth with no significant growth on the horizon. So why would Comcast, which has billions of dollars and could buy anything it wanted, possibly want to buy a low growth declining asset like NBC? My guess, pure ego. Comcast made a play for the Walt Disney Company in February 2004 and was spurned by Disney. The owners of Comcast, the Roberts family simply want to own an entertainment company. And that's the whole problem.

CEO/"lyricist" Edgar Bronfman is another example of a purely ego driven deal about follies in the entertainment business. These CEO's aren't looking at the spreadsheets, they're thinking about going to premiere's in Hollywood with George Clooney and Megan Fox, and that's no way to run a company, even if it's your own money. The Bronfman family lost billions of dollars buying Universal. AOL and Time Warner shareholders lost billions in that failed merger. One of the most valuable lessons I learned in business school is to take the emotion out of business. As a CEO, if your primary goal is to maximize shareholder value, spending billions to buy a low growth company is not the way to do it.

Comcast should be spending their billions buying other cable companies. If I was a Comcast shareholder, I would vote against this deal. Comcast, Time Warner, and other cable companies should be buying other cable systems. The high growth revenue in buying cable systems is no longer the cable channels themselves, the real money is in broadband speed. The cable business is a capital intensive business. Cable is under pressure from the phone companies (Verizon's FIOS and my soon to be TV provider - AT&T Uverse) and from the satellite companies for TV delivery (Dish/Echostar & DirecTV). And they are, but where they're under pressure is two areas which can be improved.

My cable box is horrible. It takes too long to scroll through the channels, sometimes it works fine, sometimes it pauses. Cable companies in the United States have effectively missed a huge revenue opportunity with VOD. Why? Because the cable VOD technology is terrible. And the other major issue is customer service. Cable has horrible customer service. AT&T, Verizon, EchoStar and DirecTV have terrific technology and great customer service. All cable needs to do is produce state of the art set top boxes and be more responsive to their customers to beat down their competitive threats.

But the real revenue is in broadband speed. Broadband is like technological heroin. The more you have the more you want. Everyone wants faster broadband. Remember dial up? Could you ever even imagine going back? Now imagine 100 MB broadband speed or 350 MB broadband or 500 MG broadband speed. You Tube videos load and launch as soon as you press the video, instant bill pay, pages load immediately, video chats and conferencing....the possibilities are endless. And the technology already exists in other countries. By 2012, South Koreans will get a 1Gbps broadband connection. To put that in context, that's 100 times fast than your average 5 MB connection in the average American household today. And I will pay for that speed. I would pay $150 for a 100 MB broadband, and that's on top of the $75 for all my cable channels. For cable, the real money is in broadband, and the phone companies service with DSL has been as bad as cables' technological shortcomings.

Instead of buying NBC's low growth entertainment assets, Comcast should have purchased Cablevision New York or Charter. A missed revenue opportunity if there ever was one.

JAY Z IS THE HIP HOP BEETHOVEN

Continuing my ode to artistic geniuses blogging.....

Back in the late 1700's and 1800's there were thousands of classical music composers. Today, only a handful have truly stood the test of time and survived for almost 250 years. Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Wagner....these are names in music that will be remembered in music and live on forever.

When I look around at today's modern musical artists and acts, I find myself asking, who are today's genius musicians? Who in my lifetime will be remembered 250 years from now in 2260? Certainly Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Madonna, U2, Bruce Springstein, but there is definitely another name to add to that list and that's Jay Z. Jay Z is an indisputable musical prodigy, just like Beethoven. His lyrics, his beats, and his music will always be remembered.

Truth be told, I may have 3 Jay Z songs in my whole music collection. But I can always recognize true geniuses, the art that they create and for how long it will endure.

Just like a symphony goer in the late 1800's going to see the world premiere of Symphony #5. To be among the first human beings ever to hear that music. How incredible must it be as an audience member to be there the first time that music is ever played? It must be truly a magical experience. It may seem silly to say so, but going to a Jay Z concert is the 21st century version of seeing Beethoven live.