Nothing angers the bloglodites more than "astroturf." (Our theory is that the reason blogs are so popular is that everyone likes using the lingo -- it's more fun than the actual content, as often as not.) And, then again, Comcast Corp. (NASD:CMCSA) has an ability to anger cable TV subscribers just on general principle. Combine astroturf and Comcast and it really gets to be juicily nasty.
Astroturf is a blog term for what appears to be an online grassroots movement by the people, but is instead a phony version of a grassroots movement created by the publicist. That's a no-no on the Web. In this case, it appeared to bloggers that Comcast was laying down some astroturf to defend its bargaining position with the Big Ten Network.
The Big Ten Network, which will officially launch on Thursday, promises to broadcast nearly three dozen Big Ten college football games along with dozens of college basketball matches and other sports. Comcast says that's a network for a niche audience of sports junkies and should be part of a sports package that costs extra for cable subscribers. Big Ten says that not only should its network be part of the basic tier package, but Comcast should pay it $1.10 per subscriber. Comcast said that's too high.
Big Ten fans have been howling -- in the blogosphere as well as everywhere else -- that Comcast is pricing them out of their passion. Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney has been on their side. But last week, an online commenter, labeled Victory4MSU20, trashed Delaney in comments posted on Big Ten fan Web sites. After referring to the "BigTen greedmongers," Victory4MSU20 urged posters to check out puttingfansfirst.com for the real story. That site is financed by Comcast.
A site administrator pinged (another great blog word!!!) Victory4MSU20 and found it came from Martin Waymire Advocacy Communications, a Lansing, Michigan public relations agency working for Comcast. Its job is to help Comcast to steer web crawlers to the PuttingFansFirst Web site. Yikes, astroturf! Major no-no, and Spartan Tailgate.com, the fan Web site for Michigan State, was not pleased.
Agency partner Dan Waymire told Multichannel News, an industry Web site, that the posting didn't come from the agency itself, but from an employee -- a Big Ten fan -- who was not aware of the agency's online policies. Waymire said Comcast was definitely not in the astroturf business and had nothing to do with the posting.
Hmmmm.
Comments (1)
I am a Penn State Alumni and have no direct interest related to the Big Ten Network or Comcast and ahve never and will never go to any sites they sponsor. I would like to have access to the Big Ten network however, but why make everyone pay $1.10 because I feel that way. If every league and every school required cable tv to pay for and forcew them to put the product on the basic service level, no one could afford basic due to cost. It is my belief that Comcast should offer, certain stations on an a-la-carte basis that do not make economic sense for the basic or expanded basic tiers and programmers need to quit being unreasonable as to what really is appropriate for the basic levels. It is not fair for me to pay for soccer, lacrosse, racing etc. if all I really want is college or football. Creating a high-priced super sports tier is as unfair to me as putting the Big Ten cost on the entire cable population. It is time for Comcast to be more creative and allow me to buy the Big Ten Channel or other programming of similar niche interest that I may be interested in at the additional cost plus an appropriate profit for Comcast. You need the programmers to be creative to and quit their pipe dreams about becoming a basic channel.
Posted by Brian Sweeney | August 28, 2007 2:20 PM
Posted on August 28, 2007 14:20