Prescience is critical to finding the Open Ice before your competition does.  It also help to possess thorough knowledge of any rules governing conduct on the field of play. 

As unpredictable as Washington Lawmakers are, it safe to assume that at least two of the 3 branches of government will react to crisis with legislative fixes capable of exacerbating the situation.

Against the backdrop of a chaotic primary season and a long holiday recess, Congress is back at work doing what it does best.  Are you ready?

SOPA Opera

With backing from major American media companies (Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy), the House Judiciary Committee held a series of mark-up sessions this week on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The Bill and its Senate counterpart – the Protect IP Act (PIPA) - propose to allow the Justice Department to seek a court order requiring U.S. search engines to scrub certain results from the sites, among other anti piracy measures.  The debate has been framed as a battle over First Amendment Rights between “old” media and crowd-sourced “new” media content providers (like Google, Wikipedia and AskMe.com).  The Obama Administration has signaled a willingness to veto, if necessary.  

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) told reporters that the piracy legislation wasn't set to come up for a vote anytime soon because "it's pretty clear to many of us that there's a lack of consensus at this point." PIPA has been stalled in the Senate since May but is expected to be on the floor next Tuesday for a procedural vote.

Given the opposing players' stubborn unwillingness to embrace compromise, incumbent politicians are likely to benefit from the lobbyists largess in the way of campaign cash this election year.

Exit Options

Media and Entertainment investments carry inherent risk - not the least of which is getting "trapped" in an over leveraged deal facing both cyclical and secular challenges.  Ask Bain, TH Lee, Crestview Partners, et al.

Increasing opportunities for timely exits is one of the simplest means of mitigating risk, encouraging investment and achieving employment growth. 

Some market watchers predict an uptick in tech and Internet companies IPO’s this year, fueled by the Facebook-effect and potential regulatory changes. Most analysts expect VC-backed IPOs to outpace those from PE-backed firms, considering forecasts for continued volatility.

However, a bill (S1933) introduced late last year by US Sens. Charles Schumer (D, N.Y.) and Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) might jump start renewed interest in the IPO market. The Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act of 2011 seeks to ease the onerous burdens currently imposed on small company IPO’s by Dodd-Frank and the Volcker Rule.

A Crowded Playing Field?

Worried about competition from stand-alone, user-customizable streaming audio services?  SiriusXM CEO Mel Karmazin declares " advantage:  satellite and broadcast radio".  It's all about "no barrier to entry". 

In his Citi Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference key note address, SiriusXM CEO Mel Karmazin somewhat dismissively asserted that starting a streaming audio music service that can be personalized by each user would be a fairly simple proposition for his company (or any other).


Music royalty payments for stand-alone streaming audio services have represented a big headwind on profit margins - far more so than for AM, FM or satellite radio - even for Pandora, the beneficiary of a relatively favorable pay for play royalty deal.  It takes a million plays on Pandora for artists to receive $1,000 in fees.

Signs of increasing friction over royalty payments are beginning to appear anew as core artists like Jay-Z, Coldplay, the Black Keys, and a slew of indie artists and labels publicly resist digital distribution channels like Spotify, MOG and Slacker.  Fast Company reports on questions of business model viability.

The South Park Effect?


Do people actually act on their privacy concerns?

Data from over 37,000 respondents was analyzed by Forrester Research. Forty-four percent of those surveyed said they had not completed an online transaction because of something they read in the company’s terms of use or privacy policy. That’s up from 38 percent in 2008.

Are Matt Stone and Trey Parker much more sacrilegiously influential than anyone ever imagined?

Skate On!