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Lyft joins Uber in offering upfront fares
The cutthroat competition between Lyft and Uber sometimes has an upshot: rider-friendly features tend to spread quickly from one service to the other. And that's certainly true today. Lyft is matching Uber's upfront fares by introducing its own in-app fare previews for all passengers, not just Lyft Line as before. Once you plug in your starting point and destination, you'll know just how much it will cost to get there, including taxes, tolls and Prime Time (aka surge pricing). Things are only up in the air if you either don't pick a destination or change your mind mid-route.
'Upfront' Uber pricing replaces estimates with guarantees
Soon, when you open up Uber and request a ride you'll see the pricing in a different way. Instead of its current method of displaying the rate (and multiplier, if surge pricing is in effect), with a fare estimate in a second screen, it will just display a guaranteed price to take you to your destination. Of course, that doesn't mean surge pricing is going away, just that it will already be figured in to the price you're quoted (with a "Fares are higher due to increased demand" note.)
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XI - ABC exec takes on DVRs
We know that as a network executive, ABC's President of Advertising Sales Mike Shaw has a vested interest in the survival of the traditional 30-second commercial, but his recent assertion that consumers don't really care about the ad-skipping functionality of their DVRs strikes us as being way off the mark. Following ABC's latest rate-setting powwow with advertisers, or upfront, Shaw opined that he wasn't sure "the driving reason to get a DVR in the first place is just to skip commercials," and that the appeal of such devices "really is just a matter of convenience -- so you don't miss your favorite show." He even went so far as to say that he "would love it if the MSO's...would disable the fast-forward [button]" on their next generation of set-top boxes, suggesting that "people can understand in order to have convenience and on-demand, that you can't skip commercials." Once again, we follow the logic here -- commercials do help keep programs we enjoy on the air -- but instead of embittering folks by forcing them to sit through ads, maybe Shaw should encourage his advertising partners to follow KFC's lead and create spots that people actually want to watch. Remember, Mike, that'll you'll catch more flies with delicious honey than the sour vinegar you're currently trying to force down our throats.
