Cutthroat: High Stakes & Killer Moves on the Electronic Frontier

Rating:
Summary: Best information I've Seen on cable and Satellite TV
Review: I've just completed "Cutthroat" by Stephen Keating; it has the most details and and reference sources I've seen on the subject, through the tracking of a few of the big hitters in the field. He goes through a history of cable tv and satellite by focusing on several of the players, Malone, Ergen, Murdock, and the Roberts, relating how they built their positions. By including a lot of financial stats and numbers, this book gives a very good perspective of the size of the industry. For many persons, it is the 4th or 5th largest personal expenditure, $40 to $60 per month for many of the 85 million households which have cable or satellite. Yet, little is known about cable tv, the players, who picks the channels shown on your local system, how the monopolies were maintained for so many years, etc. This book helps to debunk some of the myths, such as the 500 channel system. I don't really think anyone needs even 200 channels of different programing (unless you want to see Ron Popeil and his rotisserie evey 1/2 hour).

For all of the cutthroat competition, the system seems to be working, or is it? It appears that most homes will have their choice of either 1 - 2 cable servers or satellite tv. But how about captive customers in apartment buildings or condos, which is about 1/2 of all persons living in most high density Eastern cities and suburbs? Will they have a choice? And why is the price so high? Insofar, as most of the channels in expanded basic are advertising supported, why do the bills average $35? Why not $19.95 like DISH charges for a pretty good basic package. I think Mr. Keating's next book a few years from now on the subject will probably be able to answer these kinds of questions. But for now, this is the best information source that I have seen.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat lopsided, but a decently-written yarn
Review: Surprisingly, this is not a flatly-written text book about the battles that brewed and continue to brew between the cable and satellite industries. Instead, Keating book injects some rakish zip and intrigue that makes it extremely fun to read. Expect a lot of insightful background on EchoStar chief executive Charlie Ergen, but not much on Dr. John Malone. After reading, it's clear who of the two main characters (Ergen and Malone) spent quality time with Keating for his book. The book also puts the DBS companies like EchoStar and DirecTV in a positive, swashbuckling light, while the "cable gang" (a term Keating uses ad nauseum) comes out looking like a bunch of thugs, bording on crookery -- a rather lopsided view.

"Cutthroat" deals aside, Keating also supplies terrific accounts regarding the births of the cable and satellite industries. A good read all around. If you haven't paid much attention to the DBS and cable industries, you will after reading this book. In addition to his book, I used to read Keating's telcom news coverage in the Denver Post. He's off that particular beat now (perhaps because there could be a conflict of interest in covering DBS and cable after he wrote the book), but Denver Post readers are the ones who are suffering. The person who handles the telecom beat these days does a satisfactory job, but needs to get a better understanding of each industry before the new reporter's coverage will ever rival Keating's.

Rating:
Summary: Wheeling and Dealing for Media Control
Review: This biopic of the telecommunications industry portrays the shifting alliances and deals all geared at not offering the best service, but applying the best marketing spin to gain political favoratism, industrial recognition, and that all important big paycheck brought around by big profits! It chronicles the striking similarities between the cable industries ascent in trying to attain these goals from the power grip of the broadcasting programmers in the past to today the satellite industry trying to do the same, while the cable moguls thwart their efforts. The big man really does win in this situation, but the interesting thing is all these megolomaniacs achieved their powers and success through their hard perseverence.

This industry personifies perseverence and an iron-will at deal-making when one moment your most glorified partner can become your closet-door backstabbing enemy. This powerplay between giants such as John Malone's TCI, Charlie Edger's EchoStar, Bill Gates, Brain Roberts of Comcast, Ted Turner, and Mediaone's Rupert Murdoch is truly fascinating and a good case study in the battles fought between strong, hard-nosed personalities seeking to gain a greater piece of the pie from such a lucrative market.

While Rupert Murdoch creates sub-par programming and the degradation of television as an educational instrument and turns it into your car chasing, animal attacking, cop shooter cheesy entertainment nightmare, he racks up bigger and bigger profits through conglomeration and horizontal dispersal. It is clearly visible that Edger's Echostar costing less than $50 a month and providing over 200 niche channels would've seemed like the best service provider to consumers, but Malone's sellout to AT&T and Murdoch's stake in that deal sealed the fate for much of satellite's potential market.

Two-facism's and shallow, questionable character's aside, this book is a good introduction into the vast amounts of luck, money, power, and psychological dominance needed to succeed in the electronic oilfield industry.