<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, charter communications]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, charter communications]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/chartercommunications http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/chartercommunications <![CDATA[Meet the man who has to save cable]]> Ad money is flying onto the Web. While it hasn't hurt cable TV yet — that business is still seeing a migration of ad dollars from the broadcast networks — Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Cablevison, Charter and Brighthouse Networks are worried it could. So together, they've created Canoe Ventures, and hired ad-agency veteran David Verklin as CEO. His mission: Convince cable programmers like Walt Disney's ESPN or Viacom's MTV to adopt advertising technology that will automatically place cable commercials, like Internet ads are targeted today.

The cable providers lined Canoe's pockets with $150 million to make it happen. Tough task, says the Wall Street Journal, which reports that TV programmers fear targeted advertising because it might create such value for advertising clients that they end up spending less to reach only exactly those who might buy their products. If it's a fear that sounds arcane and self-damaging, well, welcome to the contrived world of television advertising, Mr. Verklin. Oh, and here's your paddle.

]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5015151&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[BusinessWeek breaks its rules just to trash Paul Allen's company]]> Paul Allen - ValleywagBusinessWeek gives writer Roben Farzad a special exception to the "don't cover what you have stocks in" rule to write that Paul Allen (pictured grinning like a Bond Villain) has become great at losing money. This isn't about the Microsoft co-founder's basketball team losing $100 million a year. Think big leagues, baby — Farzad's writing about Charter Communications. "Its $19.5 billion in debt dwarfs its market cap of $510 million. Its interest expense alone devours a third of its revenue," writes Farzad. That's after Allen sunk $8 billion into the company and became its chairman.

"All along," says Farzad, "Allen has acted in ways that make him seem either oblivious or indifferent to the plight of ordinary shareholders." Well sure — Allen's worth over $22 billion. If Charter dies, he just needs to mortgage SpaceShipOne again.

Charter: Cable's Sucker Stock [BusinessWeek]

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