Monday News: Netflix objects to AT&T deal, relocating stories, Amazon publishing’s growth, and Yahoo sues ex-employee over book
Publishing NewsAmazon / anti-trust / ATT / confidentiality / DirectTV / ereaders / FCC / GPS / lawsuit / Netflix / publishing / Yahoo9 Comments
Why Netflix Wants The AT&T/DirecTV Merger Killed – With the AT&T – DirectTV merger moving closer to reality, Netflix has filed a brief with the FCC, claiming that if it succeeds, the merger will give AT&T too much power over its competition (i.e. Netflix), and, more important, that AT&T will use that power to crush its competition (i.e. Netflix). AT&T denies the charges, of course, but Netflix does have some legitimate concerns, especially given that less competition is bad for everyone except AT&T and DirectTV. According to the Netflix brief:
AT&T already has a demonstrated ability to harm OVDs by leveraging its control over interconnection to degrade its own customers’ access to Netflix’s service. AT&T also has shown an interest in using data caps and usage-based pricing methods, which it can apply discriminatorily to advantage its own services. If AT&T is able to slow the development of the OVD industry, either by foreclosing access to broadband customers or imposing discriminatory data caps, AT&T would be able to preserve its market advantage by slowing or even reversing the shift toward competitive online video offering and away from bundled video/broadband offerings. –The Motley Fool
GPS eReader ReWrites the Story Wherever the Reader Is Located – Although the development of an e-reader that changes the setting of a story to the reader’s location seems like a gimmick, apparently it’s more than that. How much more is not clear, nor is the appeal of such a device, but the Brazilian company developing this technology has already released apps for Android and i0S if you want to try it out. This idea strikes me as even more potentially disruptive than the Clean Reader app that recently bit the dust.
A Brazilian ad agency has created a limited production ereader which uses GPS to track its current location and automatically change the location and landmarks in a story to wherever the reader is located. . . .
The Trip Book was developed by FCB Brazil for a Brazilian loyalty program called Smiles. It features a story by Brazilian author Marcelo Rubens Paiva which was written in a sufficiently generic style that key locations and landmarks can be replaced with whatever locations are near the reader. –Ink, Bits & Pixels (aka The Digital Reader)
Amazon Publishing Marches On – Despite the frequency with which I visit the Amazon site, I pay relatively little attention to Amazon as a publisher, which currently includes 14 imprints and the expectation of 1200 titles released in 2015. And despite its original focus on commercial fiction, much of the growth is now in non-fiction areas. Not surprisingly, Amazon is doing well as publisher on the Kindle platform, and in what may be a very smart business move, given the growth of international markets, Amazon is doing quite a bit with translated books:
One area where Amazon Publishing has established a strong position is in publishing translated books through AmazonCrossing. According to statistics compiled by Chad Post’s Three Percent blog, in 2014, AmazonCrossing released 44 English translations of titles that were originally published overseas—more than any other U.S. house. Amazon plans to increase that number to 70 this year, while also releasing more than 200 German-language titles through its Munich office. Amazon launched its German-language publishing program in March 2014, and developing a worldwide publishing program remains a priority. “Investing globally means acquiring authors locally, as well as expanding the audience for all of our authors through translations into multiple languages,” Belle said. In addition to Munich, Amazon Publishing has overseas offices in London and Luxembourg.–Publishers Weekly
Yahoo sues ex-employee over book on Marissa Mayer – So a former Yahoo employee has been sued for allegedly giving author Nicholas Carlson access to an online archive of information that is only accessible by employees, and which includes comments Mayer made to employees during staff meetings. The woman no longer works for Yahoo, and has not yet commented on the suit, which alleges that
“That unauthorized book has caused unnecessary distraction within Yahoo’s workforce, damaged the integrity of the FYI and Q&A processes, and undermined the conduct of every other Yahoo employee who honors his or her promise to safeguard confidential information that the company shares with its employees,” the lawsuit said. “Lal’s breach of trust and confidentiality also destabilized the trust on which Yahoo relies in providing its employees with the greatest level of information Yahoo has ever shared with its workforce.” –San Jose Mercury News
AT&T has already merged with DirecTV or at least they are at the final step. When I changed from Comcast to AT&T last month they bundled both those services for me and now I get one bill. Netflix is kind of late in making their feelings known on the merger…I’ve not read any outcry loud enough over it on social media like I did with the Comcast/Time Warner merger.
I don’t think much of the GPS ereader. One thing I truly enjoy in both reading and writing books is the ambiance of the setting. True, the ereader could easily swap out Paris with London and change the Eiffel Tower to London Bridge, but that doesn’t give the reader any sense of what the location “feels” like, if that makes sense… The smell of the French brassieries v. the scent wafting from the Thames. This ap would just make the story too sterile for my tastes.
I’ve reviewed for over a decade now for a venue notorious for its “mean” criticism, but I don’t think I’ve *ever* given a slapdown as harsh as “written in a sufficiently generic style that key locations and landmarks can be replaced with whatever.”
@Keishon: The merger has actually not yet been approved, although it has gone somewhat un-noticed because of other issues (Comcast, for example). Definitely not surprised that they’re functioning as if they’ve already gotten the green light from the FCC. According to this LA Times article, however, opposition is building now that attention is back on the deal: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-broadcasters-fcc-dispute-att-directv-merger-review-20150508-story.html
Everything Sandy James said.
I have a tough time with the idea that the location is so generic that you could just plop Billings, Montana, into a story where a large city would have worked as well. Or Montana versus Missouri. Or Billings versus Hong Kong. Aside from perhaps a few local references that might, or might not, work well, I doubt you’d have a real “setting” at all.
@hapax:
My feelings exactly.
@Robin/Janet: Thanks Robin.
Thumbs up for the post! Really interesting and informative!