How media companies are placing bets on the changing TV landscape*

We're talking about a revolution in the way people are consuming content, and nearly each day you see examples of companies placing bets on whatever combination of services provides the best prospects. That's the real story behind Dish Network's unsolicited bid for Sprint Nextel. As with most anything, consumers will be drawn to convenience, accessibility, price - plus, in this case, access to content. From the WSJ:

Sunday night, when Dish Network Chairman Charles Ergen and his colleagues were in New York preparing to announce their Sprint offer, they were also using their mobile devices to watch the Masters golf tournament. Mr. Ergen spent much of a later interview with The Wall Street Journal maintaining that more people in the future will want to do the same--and that Dish, by buying Sprint, would put itself in position to profit from those changed habits. Pairing his satellite broadcaster with a nationwide wireless service like Sprint's would allow him to offer wireless Internet service that people can use in their homes, thanks to Sprint's cellular network, along with a more comprehensive mobile-video service that he said would let Dish subscribers get live TV beamed to their phones cheaply. There is also a large portion of Americans--as much as a third, Mr. Ergen estimated--who in the future will find it more efficient to get their home Internet over a wireless connection than through a wired one because they won't have access to superfast fiber-optic wired networks. For those people, Mr. Ergen said in the interview, a combined Dish-Sprint could beam Internet service from towers to special cellular antennas mounted on the roofs of people's homes.

Meanwhile Time Warner Cable, which has 1.6 million customers in Southern California, is adding to its mobile app. Subscribers will have access to as many as 11 live national news, sports and entertainment channels, including the Big Ten Network, the Pac-12 Network, and BBC America. In addition, customers will be able to receive some local channels, as well as on-demand programming. The mobile package still doesn't come close to the entire TWC program lineup, but more content deals are sure to be in the works. That's where the money is. Here's the Bloomberg story.

*One more reminder of where things are at. From the LAT:

Digital advertising revenues reached a record $36.6 billion in 2012, propelled in part by triple-digit growth in mobile advertising and strong gains in video, according to newly released statistics from the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Internet advertising rose 15% from the record levels of a year ago, with ad revenues surpassing those of cable television in the United States, according to the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report. For the second year, spending on mobile devices more than doubled as advertisers continue to follow consumers onto their smartphones and tablets. Mobile advertising rose to $3.4 billion in 2012, up 111% from the prior year's record levels. Mobile advertising now accounts for 9% of all digital revenue.