Dish Network was widely ridiculed for snapping up the Blockbuster video rental chain last year, but it may be getting the last laugh now. Dish has a chance to move into the cell phone business, and all those brick-and-mortar Blockbuster stores could give it a big boost.
As cable companies and satellite TV providers made their latest quarterly reports, one thing became clear: Americans are fed up with their bills for premium TV. The cable and satellite TV industries ended the period with 292,000 fewer customers than they started with.
Netflix, the largest video-streaming company in the world, has been tracking the download speeds of North American broadband ISPs. On Thursday, it posted a chart of its findings: On average, ISPs in Canada handily beat their U.S. counterparts.
Early Monday, telecom giant Verizon Communications (VZ) named Lowell McAdam president and COO, which would put him in line to eventually succeed longtime CEO Ivan Seidenberg. McAdam currently serves as the CEO of Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between the U.S. company and Vodafone.
It's aiming to attract new customers away from cable and satellite providers with a 30-day, no obligation, lock-in-the-price-for-two-years contract. Verizon is also launching a new month-to-month billing plan.
