There are just 1.29 million households left in Michigan that still pay for cable TV, according to an annual report by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC).

That’s the lowest figure the state has ever reported. And considering that Michigan has more than four million households, it means that less than a third of residents pay for a cable service.

In all, the state lost an additional 190,000 cable video subscribers in 2023, a 13% drop.

The MPSC is measuring 31 cable television and other video providers that operate in Michigan, but does not include satellite TV distributors. 

Comcast alone lost 2 million video customers nationally last year, but the story isn't just about cord-cutting. A number of cable companies operating in the state have marginalized the video business or moved out of it altogether. WideOpenWest, for example, has been trying to steer its broadband customers to third-party virtual MVPD service YouTube TV for more than a year.  

At the same time, the MPSC reported 2,183 official complaints involving cable video in 2023, its highest rates of consumer dissatisfaction and an almost 200% increase since it began reporting in 2008.

Michigan customers have been increasingly dissatisfied with their cable offerings in last years, especially after the decision to broadcast University of Michigan’s 2023 opening football game singularly on Peacock left many fans unable to watch.

“Why would a Michigan game be peacock exclusive? That's ridiculous,” said one fan.

And when Peacock broadcast an Ohio State game last season, the fan response was even more aggressive.

“The Ohio State-Purdue game being a Peacock streaming exclusive is ridiculous. The Big Ten should be ashamed of themselves for agreeing to this,” said a fan. “I hope they get significant repercussions for doing so. Buckeye nation revolt!”

In fact, one Ohio state senator even pushed for legislation that would block the singular carriage of public university games by streaming services.

Dan Boers, who had been with WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, since 1996, is moving to WXMI-TV, the E.W. Scripps station in the market, as news director.

“As a West Michigan native, I’m proud to join a team that has a long tradition of serving this community with important news coverage,” said Boers. “I’m excited and honored to lead and build on the success and accomplishments of the Fox 17 team.”

Boers succeeds Brooks Blanton, who became news director of WCCB-TV, Charlotte, N.C.

Boers joined WOOD as a weekend assignment editor and moved up, becoming assistant news director and director of news operations before being promoted to news director. WOOD and sister stations WOTV and WXSP are now owned by Nexstar.

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“Dan has a record of leading a high-performing news team and a deep knowledge of our market and audience,” said Kimberly Krause, VP, and general manager at WXMI. “After spending my entire career in this market, I’m confident the addition of Dan to our news team will help drive our continued success.”

The Big Ten Conference has decided to postpone its fall sports program, including its college football schedule, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to published reports.

"The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward,” said Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren in a statement. “As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall."

The Big Ten's decision to postpone the college football season until at least Spring 2021 comes after a morning meeting with the conference’s presidents. The conference, which includes such schools as Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, becomes the first of the "Power Five" conferences -- which also includes the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, and Southeastern Conference (SEC) -- to postpone the 2020 college football season, striking a major blow to prospects for a college football season this fall. 

Other conferences that have decided to cancel fall sports play include The Mountain West, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and the Mid-American Conference. 

Advertisers are pushing back on parts of a COVID-19 related executive order issued this week by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. 

The provisions that ANA wants Whitmer to rescind prevent big box stores (over 50,000 square feet) that are remaining open for in-person sales during the pandemic shelter-at-home mandates from advertising any product but "groceries, medical supplies, or items that are necessary to maintain the safety, sanitation, and basic operation of residences." 

It also prevents the advertising of "a short-term vacation property except as necessary to assist in housing a health care professional or volunteer aiding in the response to the COVID-19 crisis." 

The Association of National Advertisers said that the order is well meaning but misguided.  

"This ban almost certainly violates the First Amendment and the Commerce Clause of the Constitution," said ANA executive VP of Government Relations Dan Jaffe. He said that the order has lots of problems. "For example, it singles out a segment of the retail industry without any explanation as to why only large retail outlets are included in the ban." 

He said the order is not backed up with any evidence that advertising for those stores is less safe than for smaller stores. "The order also is vague, because it is hard to identify what is and is not within the ban," he said. 

For example, could a large retailer not advertise fabric in stock, though that might be used to make face masks. He also points out that the governor has called for maintaining “communications and information technology, including news media” becuase they are essential. "But advertising is the life blood of these news and information organizations," he points out, "and this ban would undermine their capacities and limit the economic support for the programming they carry." 

Besides he said, even ads for the "innumerable activities important to everyday life" are important to supporting a damaged economy. 

An app that New York City, among other metros, should look into was named Fan Favorite in Verizon's fourth annual Innovative App Challenge. POP, designed with urban and suburban communities in mind, aims to "Protect Our Parks," enabling citizens to send real-time alerts to city park officials when they spot needed clean-ups, repairs or other issues.

Interested city governments would have to negotiate with a tough crew, however: a team of students from Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Wyandotte, Mich. The Fan Favorite developers (based on 150,000 votes cast) were recognized last week alongside eight Best in Nation teams for creating mobile app concepts that aimed to solve a problem (like dirty or unsafe parks) in their schools or communities.

The winning teams – selected by a panel of judges assembled by the Student Technology Association – now get to work with experts from the MIT Media Lab to bring their concepts to fruition. They also earned donations of $20,000 to their sponsoring organization from the Verizon Foundation, to be used for STEM-related programs. The 2016 Innovative App Challenge begins in August.

In another STEM-driven program announced by a media company last week, Cartoon Network said it is launching a $30 million initiative to get kids interested in computer coding. The network will create STEM-inspired storylines involving coders and coding for Powerpuff Girls and another series (to be named later) and will also produce coding tutorials for kids age 6-11 featuring the two series’ characters. Cartoon is creating the tutorials in partnership with Scratch, a project from the MIT Media Lab and the Scratch Foundation.

Cartoon’s initiative is among the privately funded projects surrounding a three-year White House push to promote computer science education. "We've been doing a large amount of work with Hollywood and other media around the portrayal of who does this [computer] work," U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith said. "Many young people are not aware that computer science was founded by a broad set of people..."

Like the creators of POP.

Separately, in a demonstration of the "local" in local systems, Comcast employees in Flint, Mich., have been distributing water filters and holding bottled water drives to provide clean drinking water to their neighbors affected by the community's lead contamination crisis. The MSO has about 127 employees working in Flint, including 58 who live in the city.

Since Jan. 25 the MSO's local Flint service center and some 80 field service technicians have been handing out state-provided water filters to residents; they collectively distributed about 600 filters within the first three days.

Additionally, in what Tom Collins, senior VP for Comcast's Heartland Region described in a blog post as a "full court press," Comcast is holding a bottled water drive among its 4,000 employees across Michgan, and company techs are delivering the donations to Flint. The hands-on efforts are being supported by special content on a newly created local On Demand channel called "Flint Water" as well as Comcast-produced PSAs.

Former Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert is looking to move to the big House on Capitol Hill.

Gilbert announced a run for Congress as a Democrat in Michigan's 8th congressional district. Republican Rep. Mike Bishop currently holds the seat.

"I’m running for Congress to make life a little easier for all the families who feel they have fallen through the cracks in today’s economy," Gilbert said. "I believe building a new economy is a team effort, and we need to bring fresh voices to the table to get the job done."

The actress already has experience in high office. She is the former president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Gilbert lives in the district with her husband, actor Timothy Busfield, who has experience in the faux Washington world from his time playing a White House reporter on "West Wing."

Gilbert was elected to the SAG board in November 2000 and to the presidency the following November, the third woman to hold the post. In December 2001 she was elected VP of the AFL-CIO.