Look who is buying websites

Comcast--an ISP, right?--is looking for unique content. Why?

[weeks]

Comcast is buying the movie ticket web site Fandango and is planning to launch Fancast.com, "a national online destination that will allow consumers to search, discover and manage entertainment choices across multiple platforms including television, computers, DVDs and wireless services." Fancast.com is going to launch this summer and offer search for shows, movies, actors and actresses, and video content.

I'm thinking that Comcast and Verizon and every other ISP is going to try to allure subscribers with exclusive subscription services on websites like this. You get it free or discounted if you're with the ISP, you pay if you re not.

If you have a subscription website, start looking at ways you can sell in bulk to an ISP.

Say, if you're the Wall Street Journal or the NYTimes? You have a lot of content people want behind a subscription wall. But, you offer it to Comcast users at half price. Or free. Wouldn't you hate to give up free or cheap access to Times Select or WSJ to switch to Verizon?

[caveman]

Good pick up weeks. It amazes me that more people are not talking about this.

Worth considering about Comcast:
-- Comcast.net has quietyly become one of the biggest sites on the Web.
-- They are a huge consumer of video content for their subscriber base.
-- They have recently been promoting Searchlight, their on-screen search service for local and other services.

...and about the Web and entertainment.
-- Entertainment is where the money is at. Ask Yahoo! and the big media companies.
-- No one knows if the computer screens will become TV viewing devices, or TV's will become Web viewing devices. Either way, big money is being bet on various forms of digital entertainment and entertainment management.
-- In home media portal devices are just now starting to gain some traction.

Whoa, don't tell me that digital TV/video/Web/phone convergence may almost be actually finally happening? Nah. Well, maybe. IMHO, the war for control of in-home entertainment consumption is only just started. ;-)

BTW, just imagine if people do start using media center/media portal devices as the control center for all their TV and Web viewing needs, and imagine that instead of their PC, they do more and more of it through their flat panels (TV). Now, imagine what that means in terms of who controls search in the future.