The Prodigy: Lindsey Jacobellis

Lindsey Jacobellis is the nearly unchallenged champion of snowboard cross, in which four or five competitors race downhill through banked turns and over jumps.

And she can thank her brother for making her so good.

Ben Jacobellis, at 12, was the family's snowboarding pioneer. While on a ski trip near the family's Roxbury, Conn., home, he declared he wanted to ditch two boards for one.

Before long, Lindsey, five years younger than Ben, was itching to try snowboarding, too.

"I didn't pick it up as easily as he did and, quite frankly, that made me very upset," she said.

But by the time she turned 10, she was ready for Friday night "boardercross" competitions at Stratton Mountain in Vermont. The only girl racing in the 12-and-under category, she often finished in the top three. The next season, she often won.

"Lucky Lindsey" went on to become a three-time world champion (2003-2005) and is a medal favorite heading into the Winter Games.

A technically sound stylist, Jacobellis has a high profile heading into Turin, thanks to her role in a Visa commercial that has been on TV the past few weeks.

The 20-year-old had won three straight titles at the Winter X Games, but she strained her knee last month during practice for this year's competition. Instead of risking further injury with the Olympics less than two weeks away, she decided to pull out of the X Games.

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TV Starts to Look Like Internet Protocol TV
February 10, 2006
By Chris Marlowe

Many telecom operators are turning to Internet Protocol Television to salvage a bottom line ravaged by mobile phones and even Voice-over Internet Protocol, but they might be missing the potential gold mine of the platform's advanced home entertainment services.

That was one key conclusion of a report from market research and consulting firm Parks Associates. "Making TV Meaningful: Consumers and IPTV Applications" also forecasts that by year's end, nearly 13 million households will subscribe to multichannel IP video offerings, a market that will grow to about 70 million households by the end of 2010.

Much of this will be driven by video-on-demand, gaming, interactive responses and other entertainment-related features, resulting in a competitive edge for IPTV over satellite or cable. "Operators have found success from their 'one bill' approach for triple-play service (which includes voice, data and wireless)," the report said. "But ... consumers attach more value when it comes to video."

Telcos already have slashed the pricing on triple-play packages as far as they can, the report authors Deepa Iyer and Kurt Scherf said. To remain profitable in the long run, however, they must provide a more compelling product.

Cable operators have a head start in this direction. In addition to popular and current programming, the report points to such VOD offerings as children's, instructional and educational programming as ideal content for this, because they do not depend on being fresh and they serve to further differentiate cable from its satellite competition.

It seems to be working. Parks Associates found 41% of digital cable subscribers used VOD at least once a month during second-quarter 2005, up from 28% a year ago.

Satellite providers are pulling ahead, using exclusive and strategic content offerings as its most significant differentiator, the report said. This is especially true of Sunday Ticket, the optional NFL programming available in the U.S. from DirecTV.

"Parks Associates research has shown that current satellite TV subscribers are more likely to rate their satisfaction with the level of programming choices at or above a level provided by current digital cable subscribers, despite the wide variety of on-demand offerings from their cable competitors," the report said.

IPTV lets providers offer unlimited amounts of highly targeted content, but it's difficult to measure how avidly viewers want these options because the concept is poorly understood. Iyer and Scherf said most consumers assume video delivered over the Internet must be watched on a computer and are therefore unfavorably disposed to the idea. Once they understand IPTV better, the authors expect the numbers to grow.

Even with that caveat, 23% of respondents in Parks Associates' "Digital Entertainment: Changing Consumer Habits" study said they were very or extremely interested in the ability to obtain comedy programs from an IPTV service. Educational programs got a thumbs up from 18%, with a tie at 16% for family entertainment programs and music and plays. Interestingly, just 13% would like U.S.-based sporting events.