Thursday, February 28, 2013

Getting sick? That will cost you... BIG

I normally stick to TV & the media but in this case, who wouldn't be scared/horrified/disgusted out of their mind by the naked greed displayed by companies who's supposed goal is to "heal". The impotent hand of government will not fix this mess and I suppose we are each now on our own to navigate a world where if you get sick, you could easily simply die a pauper as the healthcare companies suck your life's savings dry. Is it any wonder that "Medical Tourism", as incongruous as those two words sound next to each other, is one of the fastest growing segments of the travel industry. 


What are the reasons, good or bad, that cancer means a half-million- or million-dollar tab? Why should a trip to the emergency room for chest pains that turn out to be indigestion bring a bill that can exceed the cost of a semester of college? What makes a single dose of even the most wonderful wonder drug cost thousands of dollars? Why does simple lab work done during a few days in a hospital cost more than a car? And what is so different about the medical ecosystem that causes technology advances to drive bills up instead of down?

Friday, February 22, 2013

Look at Nielsen's Catch Up Strategy



FROM THE NEWSLETTER CYNOPSIS.COM

Nielsen Co. is doing nothing less than expanding the definition of television by instituting a comprehensive plan to capture all video viewing including broadband, Xbox and iPads.  Timed to the start of the next broadcast TV season in September, Nielsen expects to have new hardware and software tools ready for the approximately 23,000 TV homes it samples. The measurement will also capture viewership from so-called "over-the-top" television programming delivered via broadband to a TV set. For now, Nielsen will count TV-connected devices such as Microsoft's Xbox, Apple TV and Roku's set-top; iPads or computers will be added later. Nielsen says its eventual goal will attempt to capture video viewing of any kind from any source.  

FROM DON'T DRAG ME DOWN:  
23,000 TV Homes to represent an incredibly diverse 100,000,0000+ U.S. TV Homes? It doesn't matter what you measure if you don't measure enough of it, you will get skewed, incomplete and unreliable results. Period.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Mr. TV Reports On Us From NATPE




Thanks to Marc Berman (AKA - Mr. TV) for featuring me and "Raw Travel" in his widely followed media site and newsletter TV Media Insights newsletter.

If you are in the media biz or want to be, you should check Marc's site out. On top of knowing his stuff, he's also one of the industry's nicest people.