LodgeNet Acquires OnCommand

News release from LodgeNet:

LODGENET COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF ON COMMAND
Expands Market-Leading Content and Technology Network for Lodging Industry Grows Capability to Deliver New Interactive Experiences for Customers and Their Guests

SIOUX FALLS, S.D., April 4, 2007 – LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation (Nasdaq: LNET), a world leader in interactive TV and broadband solutions to hotels and healthcare facilities, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Ascent Entertainment Group, Inc., the owner of all of the capital stock of On Command Corporation, for a purchase price of $380 million. The combination of LodgeNet and On Command creates a network that delivers interactive solutions to more than 1.8 million hotel rooms throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“A great interactive experience is a key differentiator for hotel guests,” said Scott C. Petersen, LodgeNet President and CEO. “Over the past several years we have grown from a company that primarily focused on video on demand to a company that delivers a wide variety of interactive solutions that connect, inform and entertain customers of visitor and guest-based businesses. The On Command and recent StayOnline acquisitions are transforming events for our company and major steps forward in our strategic plan that will significantly enhance our ability to serve our customers and their guests now and in the future.”

See http://www.oncommand.com/press/LNET%20Completes%20ONCO%20Acquisition%204.4.07_letterhead.pdf

LodgeNet Acquires OnCommand

News release from LodgeNet:

LODGENET COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF ON COMMAND
Expands Market-Leading Content and Technology Network for Lodging Industry
Grows Capability to Deliver New Interactive Experiences for Customers and Their Guests

SIOUX FALLS, S.D., April 4, 2007 – LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation (Nasdaq: LNET), a world leader in interactive TV and broadband solutions to hotels and healthcare facilities, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Ascent Entertainment Group, Inc., the owner of all of the capital stock of On Command Corporation, for a purchase price of $380 million. The combination of LodgeNet and On Command creates a network that delivers interactive solutions to more than 1.8 million hotel rooms throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“A great interactive experience is a key differentiator for hotel guests,” said Scott C. Petersen, LodgeNet President and CEO. “Over the past several years we have grown from a company that primarily focused on video on demand to a company that delivers a wide variety of interactive solutions that connect, inform and entertain customers of visitor and guest-based businesses. The On Command and recent StayOnline acquisitions are transforming events for our company and major steps forward in our strategic plan that will significantly enhance our ability to serve our customers and their guests now and in the future.”

See http://www.oncommand.com/press/LNET%20Completes%20ONCO%20Acquisition%204.4.07_letterhead.pdf

Hotel Video Porn Grabs Up to 80% of Room Revenues

From FoxNews.com, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,209834,00.html, accessed September 2, 2007:

Precise statistics on in-room adult entertainment are hard to come by. By some estimates, adult movies are available in roughly 40 percent of the nation's hotels, representing more than 1.5 million rooms. Industry analysts suggest that these adult offerings generate 60 to 80 percent of total in-room entertainment revenue — several hundred million dollars a year.

Hotel IP-over-Ethernet

NXTV is a company that provided "digital in-room entertainment, voice and data services to the worldwide luxury hotel market. Our superior technology empowers hoteliers with a digital system that transforms the guestroom TV into an interactive, dynamic and profitable asset, increasing per-room revenue and enhancing the guest experience." Source: http://www.nxtv.com/" accessed 30 September 2006.

How Much Money Do Hotels Make on In-Room Adult Videos-on-Demand?

My interest is not in whether or not to ban these offerings from hotel rooms, my interest is the decision-making process of the hotel and the guest as to whether or not they will provide and the guest will choose to view any content; adult material probably gets more attention in the popular press as is the case here. Although straying outside my field of expertise, if a local market's motels and hotels are selling significant amounts of "adult" programming, this might have implications for the application of obscenity laws in that market.

Unfortunately, this is the kind of fuzzy reference I've found to estimate the use of these offerings in private motel/hotel rooms:

[Quoting a crusader against adult videos being available in hotels and motels (and, I assume, bed and breakfast locations)]:
As more and more of these (hardcore) titles become available, we're going to have sexual abuse cases coming out of the hotels," he said. "Hotels are just as dangerous as environments around strip joints and porn stores." MONEY-MAKER Precise statistics on in- room adult entertainment are hard to come by. By some estimates, adult movies are available in roughly 40 percent of the nation's hotels, representing more than 1.5 million rooms. Industry analysts suggest that these adult offerings generate 60 percent to 80 percent of total in-room entertainment revenue - several hundred million dollars a year.

Source: The Augusta Chronicle. Augusta, Ga.: Aug 23, 2006. pg. A.10 as cited in ProQuest, accessed 30 September 2006.

Perhaps this is all an academic exercise as long as the guest has (especially broadband) access to the Internet in the room.

The Secret World of Private Television

There is a large interactive television industry that has existed in the U.S. long before interactive television services (other than Qube of the mid 1970s to early 1980s) and that is television in the hospitality industry. I hope to co-author a paper on what we might know about television viewing with this captive audience.

See http://www.nxtv.com/news_200606_02.pdf for an initial find, accessed 30 September 2006.