Disney alters platinum-plated perks to a $12,000-per-year club

Wow!  It appears that the ubber-rich are in an uproar against Walt Disney Corporation for rolling back their perks and raising their admission fees to an exclusive club in Disneyland.  From the Los Angeles Times:

Some of Mickey Mouse's high-roller friends have their tails in a twist.

For access to what is billed as "the most exclusive address in all of Disneyland" — Club 33 — many members pay $11,000 a year. Now some of those fans are piqued over what they say is a roll-back of their platinum-plated perks. Some are even contemplating canceling a membership so coveted that the waiting list is closed.

The current uproar has to do with how many extra VIP cards are allotted to platinum members, the highest level of non-corporate membership. This year each got three. 

The cards allow a lucky few to enjoy many of the benefits of a member, including access to Disney parks and dining at the secretive Club 33 restaurant, tucked away in Disneyland's New Orleans Square. VIP cardholders, who don't need to be related to the member, enjoy those perks without the member present.

But last week, platinum members received a letter that said in 2015 only the member and a spouse or domestic partner would have Club 33 benefits, while the price for the platinum level would rise to $12,000. Members' dependents, under the age of 21, retain some of the existing benefits.

"Disney pulled the rug out from everyone," one platinum member said. Like others interviewed, he declined to be identified, fearing Disney would revoke his membership.

Disney pulled the rug out from everyone???  Excuse me, but I certainly could not afford to pay the  $11,000-per-year admission fee to Disney's Club 33, let alone the $1,000 increase in their fee.  Certainly not on my contractor salary that has remained stagnant for the past 15 years.  I would certainly be curious to know who the identity of this "one platinum member" is who said this quote.  Is he a CEO, or a corporate board member, who was just as happy in cutting company labor costs, forcing workers to work the jobs of three people, and taking all the worker productivity gains from the last 20 - 30 years for that one platinum member's benefit?  How much did that one platinum member's salary and compensation increase from the previous year?  I'm guessing certainly more than the $1,000 increase in the annual fee to join Club 33.  

Of course this one platinum member is refusing to be identified for the article--Lord Sakes, we certainly do not want our increased $12,000-per-year platinum membership, from which Disney “pulled the rug out from everyone,” to be revoked by Disney for saying such hissy-tissy words to a fine, American corporation!

And Walt Disney Corporations response?  Continuing on:

Disneyland spokeswoman Cathi Killian declined to discuss the specifics of Club 33 membership, but said: "We're working with each member individually to determine the option that best suits their needs."

Walt Disney created the club, envisioning it as a place he could entertain investors and business associates, although he died before it opened in 1967.

The private Club 33 restaurant was closed earlier this year for renovations. It reopened in July with a new entrance, kitchen and jazz-inspired lounge. Now, members enter after climbing a curved staircase in the Court of Angels.

"Now that the renovation and expansion of Club 33 Le Grand Salon and Le Salon Nouveau are complete, we've turned our attention to evolving the membership program to bring you more value," Club 33 General manager James Willoughby wrote in the letter. "Each year we evaluate the business and Membership benefits and make necessary adjustments."

So, Walt Disney Corporation decided to close the club for renovations to make it even for fancy and exclusive to their exclusive membership.  Of course, all those fancy renovations means that the cost will have to be paid by their exclusive membership who are the only ones who can afford to pay for the $11,000-per-year membership fee.  What were these exclusive members thinking of—that Walt Disney would force the 99-percenter peasants to pay for Club 33’s renovations through increased park admission fees?  It is even more ironic that these exclusive VIP club members are complaining about their reduced perks and increased fees, when the club membership's waiting list has been closed.  If these VIP club members are so enraged, then why not give up your membership?  Let someone else pay the $12,000-per-year membership fee to the club that you're so pissed of at? 

Of course, the best quote from an enraged, platinum VIP cardholder was this:

“It really has turned into a money game for them.”

I guess that 'greed is good,' as long as you're not the one getting screwed by the outright greed....

Comcast to purchase Time Warner for $45 billion

This is from CNN.com:

Comcast and Time Warner Cable could face a big, uphill battle against regulators in order to win approval for their $45 billion merger.

The combined company would bring cable or Internet service to about 30% of American subscribers and serve 19 of the country's 20 largest metropolitan regions. That would give Comcast, which is already the nation's largest TV, Internet and home phone provider, an even more sizable lead on its rivals.

Comcast (CMCSA, Fortune 500) and Time Warner Cable (TWC, Fortune 500) will have to gain approval from two regulators: both the Federal Communications Commission and either the Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission. The agencies have not yet decided which will take up the case. (The FTC typically scrutinizes cable mergers but the DOJ usually handles media deals, including Comcast's 2010 purchase of NBCUniversal from GE (GE, Fortune 500).)

The companies said in a statement the deal will be "pro-competitive" and "strongly in the public interest." For instance, Comcast noted that it has higher broadband Internet speeds than Time Warner Cable, more high-definition offerings, and the deal will help make future broadband and digital TV deployment cheaper for the combined company.

 So Comcast is trying to purchase Time Warner for $45 billion, in a deal that would combine two of the biggest cable companies in the United States.  This would make Comcast the dominant provider for cable television, and internet service, reaching out to around one in three Americans.  According to Tim Hanlon, founder of Vertere Group, a media and technology investment advisory firm, '"This isn't about TV anymore -- it's about controlling a fatter, more intelligent pipe for multiple services that emanate from it," including broadband Internet, phone and home security monitoring.'

The control here for Comcast is about broadband internet.  Internet sites such as Hulu and Netflix online through your TV and computer.  However, downloading these movies and TV episodes requires a fast internet connection--certainly faster than your old modem, or even DSL.  Otherwise, when you play an online movie, it will pause at time, as the movie is being downloaded.  So it takes a lot of bandwidth to download and play such online content.  By gaining more control over cable and broadband internet, Comcast can certainly charge higher fees to their customers, who use download online content, and possibly even block internet sites, such as Hulu and Netflix, from Comcast broadband internet customers.  According to Michael Hiltzik: 

 Comcast CEO Brian Roberts tried to finesse the issue Thursday by arguing that the deal "does not reduce competition in any market or in any way," thereby acknowledging the paramount flaw in the nationwide cable market and trying to depict it as a virtue.

But the ramifications of the cable monopoly go beyond mere access to channels on your set-top box. As we observed back in August, the more damaging consequence of the cable monopoly is in broadband Internet access, where the power of the cable firms' monopolies is magnified by the lack of practical alternatives to their Internet services.

Yes, you can buy DSL Internet connectivity from your local telephone company. In some places, you can buy fiber-optic connectivity, also from a phone company (Verizon or AT&T). But DSL service is typically much slower than cable service and is geographically constrained even within service districts. (The further you are from a DSL connection box, or "central office," the crummier your signal.).

Verizon has ended its rollout of its FiOS fiber service; if your neighborhood doesn't have it now, it's not getting it. AT&T says it's still rolling out its Uverse fiber service, but hardly at a light-speed pace.

The harvest of this domination of broadband connectivity by cable monopolies is easy to see: In general, the U.S. has the lowest connection speeds and the highest prices in the developed world. The New America Foundation serveyed the world in 2012 to determine what customers could get for the equivalent of $35 a month. In Hong Kong, they could download from the Internet at 500 megabits per second (a half a gigabit); in Tokyo 200 Mbps; in Seoul, Paris, Bucharest (Romania) and Berlin 100. In Los Angeles, 10. Los Angeles is a Time Warner Cable monopoly.

The constraint here isn't technological, but commercial. Our fat and secure cable monopolies simply don't feel competitive pressure to provide customers with the fastest speeds at reasonable, affordable rates. When they do get pressured, they respond.

So in the end, consumers will end up with even crappier cable and broadband internet services from Comcast, while also paying higher rates.