May 2009

Americans may choose to consume video on the "best screen available," yet traditional TV remains the screen of choice. The average American watches approximately 153 hours of TV every month at home, a 1.2% increase from last year. In addition, the 131 million Americans who watch video on the Internet watch on average about 3 hours of video online each month at home and work. The 13.4 million Americans who watch video on mobile phones watch on average about 3 ½ hours of mobile video each month. In addition, Nielsen data shows that consumers' time with TV, Internet and Mobile video continues to increase across the board.

The relentless cycle of leak, announcement, and update is fast becoming a hallmark of the Obama Administration, and the pace seems to be accelerating as officials at the Treasury, the White House, and regulatory agencies expand existing programs and add new ones to the list. But look past the breathless headlines, and another pattern emerges: For the most part, Administration officials are doing what they said they would. That parallels the Administration's record so far in other areas as well — Politifact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning St. Petersburg Times Web site that tracks how well Obama keeps his campaign promises, figures he has already kept about a quarter of them, while a little over half of the rest are "in the works," where some factors are in the hands of Congress or otherwise out of the Administration's control. The strategy could provide the kind of reassuring, stabilizing message the economy has been craving: The government has a plan and is sticking to it.

Health IT-enabled care models have very practical, doable, near-term applications, can generate significant benefits in terms of the quality and value of health care delivery, and are already being executed successfully today by some leading health care providers. A major barrier to widespread implementation of these models, however, is our provider payment system. As has been well documented, the current U.S. health care payment system pays predominantly for the volume of services rendered, such as office visits and procedures, and not for the quality of health care outcomes. And it's a payment system that effectively punishes providers for achieving efficiencies such as the elimination of avoidable hospital readmissions and unnecessary in-person office visits. If the average medical practice today were to reduce its volume of reimbursed office visits in order to spend more time on unreimbursed care coordination, chronic care management, non-visit-based care, and medication management in order to improve patient health, care quality, and care efficiency, then the sad truth is that the practice would not survive.

Ion Media Networks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday, stating it has reached an agreement with several debtholders to swap their debt for equity in a newly capitalized company. The company, which filed yesterday, said it had reached an agreement with holders of 60% of its first lien secured debt that would extinguish all of its $2.7 billion in legacy debt and preferred stock and recapitalize the company with a $150 million new funding commitment underwritten by a group of first lien holders. Participation in the new funding, part of a $300 million facility that converts into equity upon completion of the restructuring, will be made available to all holders of Ion's first lien senior secured debt. The bankruptcy appears similar to one Charter Communications filed in March. Ion owns and operates about 60 broadcast television stations and its Ion Television network reaches about 96 million cable, satellite and broadcast homes.