Vitamin D Protects Against Dementia

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Vitamin D Protects Against Dementia

Dr. Gary Small, M.D., writes:

Fat-soluble vitamin D protects bone health and helps the body absorb dietary calcium, magnesium, and other minerals.

We can get vitamin D from fish, liver, sunlight, and supplements.

Dr. David Llewellyn and his associates at the University of Exeter Medical School in the United Kingdom reported in the journal Neurology that low blood levels of vitamin D are also associated with a greater likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers measured blood levels of vitamin D in more than 1,600 adults with the average age of 73.

The subjects did not have dementia at the beginning of the study. Volunteers with vitamin D levels of less than 25 nmol/L were twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia at a follow-up five years later.

Earlier laboratory studies indicated that vitamin D helps break down brain-toxic amyloid proteins, which may explain the connection between low vitamin D and greater dementia risk.

The new study demonstrates an association with dementia risk but not a cause-and-effect relationship; however, it strongly suggests that getting adequate vitamin D may protect brain health.

Dr. Gary Small, MD, author of The Mind Health Report newsletter, is a professor of psychiatry and aging, and director of the UCLA Longevity Center. Dr. Small, one of the nation’s top brain health experts, frequently appears on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Dr. Oz Show. He is co-author with wife Gigi Vorgan of many popular books, including the best-sellers The Memory Bible and 2 Weeks to a Younger Brain This article came in an email.

Looking for a great source of Vitamin D that's designed for easy absorption? It starts with 5,000 IU of Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol), a bioavailable form that matches what your body produces naturally. Don't just take a Vitamin D supplement—absorb it!

Learn more about the importance of the Vitamin D supplement.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Institutional Investment Advisor: Bitcoin BTC Will be Bought by Hedge Funds

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Institutional Investment Advisor: Bitcoin (BTC) Will be Bought by Hedge Funds

Bitcoin Makes No Sense to Wall Street

For the most part, traditional hedge funds have avoided Bitcoin like it’s the plague. Just look to the front page of CNBC and other mainstream business news outlets, which often push articles that cite mainstream economists and legendary fund managers — like Warren Buffett and Ray Dalio — in which it is stated that the subjects don’t believe in Bitcoin in the slightest.

Other notable players in finance and politics, including incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump, have echoed this analysis, using phrases like “thin air” and “unbacked” to get their point across. You see, unlike traditional stocks and assets, Bitcoin doesn’t provide a fixed yield, a dividend, or produce cash flow. Thus, to most in the traditional investment world, it makes no sense, and thus fits into no existing investment theses or strategies.

The technology itself is also abstract. “What’s a blockchain?” Traditional fund managers likely ask whenever they see it appear on their Bloomberg Terminal.

BTC to Become Part of Hedge Funds’ Portfolios

But this may be changing. Speaking to CNBC, Don Steinbrugge, the chief executive of Agecroft Partners — a hedge fund and institutional investment consultancy firm — made it clear that BTC should (and does) make sense for traditional funds, despite their hesitancy.

He explained to the outlet that he believes that Bitcoin has had an “amazing run” and sports “fantastic technology”. It wasn’t clear which part of the Bitcoin blockchain he was referring to, but BTC, compared to traditional fiat systems, is faster, cheaper, decentralized, and more transparent. Steinbrugge went on to point out that some investors have been using BTC to hedge against inflationary risk, likely touching on the mass usage of the cryptocurrency in nations stricken with unsustainable levels of inflation, which includes Venezuela.

He went on to note that macroeconomic uncertainty and tumult is worrying him. Bitcoin, of course, is widely becoming recognized as a hedge — a gold 2.0 if you will — that has the potential to perform well in tumultuous times.

Interestingly, he did call Bitcoin “very expensive”, adding that it is hard to “value” (maybe look to PlanB’s stock-to-flow model). But, he asserted that Bitcoin is “going to be here for a long time”, adding that eventually, it will become a part of the portfolios of “a lot of hedge funds”.

This may just make sense. Delphi Digital, a cryptocurrency research firm, discovered a few months back that adding 3% of Bitcoin to a traditional portfolio actually improve its Sharpe Ratio — a financial measure used to gauge risk-return profiles. And Binance Research recently echoed this, revealing in a report that including BTC in “traditional multi-asset class portfolios provides overall better risk-return profiles.”

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Investor: If Bitcoin Falls Under 6000 I’ll Get Real Nervous

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Investor: If Bitcoin Falls Under $6,000, I’ll Get “Real Nervous”

Mainstream media outlets have been incessantly covering the crypto space over the recent weeks. Most notably, CNBC has hosted countless executives, investors, and commentators in the industry to talk about Bitcoin, Libra, and other facets of this budding ecosystem.

After hosting prominent names like Meltem Demirors, Anthony Pompliano, Kevin O’Leary, Jeremy Allaire, and countless others to talk about cryptocurrencies on-air, the outlet’s “Squawk Box” called on Mike Novogratz on Thursday to divulge his thoughts on where Bitcoin is sitting today.

Bitcoin Price Expectations

Novogratz, the incumbent chief executive of Galaxy Digital, recently sat down with the “Squawk Box” panel to comment on recent developments in the cryptocurrency space, focusing on the recent tumult in the Bitcoin markets, which brought BTC below $10,000.

He told the panel that if Bitcoin heads below $8,500, which is currently a scenario being floated in the analysis of many traders, he will “get nervous”. And if it goes below $6,000, Novogratz adds that would make him “real nervous”.

For those who missed the memo, this is in reference to recent comments he made to Bloomberg last week, claiming that he expects for Bitcoin to enter healthy consolidation between $10,000 and $14,000.

What’s interesting is that Novogratz leaning bullish overall. In the CNBC interview, he mentioned that he has well over 7% of his personal wealth in Bitcoin. And in the Bloomberg interview, which Ethereum World News covered in a previous report, he stated that $20,000 for Bitcoin in the coming months could be possible. He backed this pseudo-prediction by touching on the fact that institutional involvement should catalyze a new wave of investment in cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin. He stated:

“I’m not selling the next time we hit $14,000. The second time we reach that level, [there may be] a move to $20,000. I don’t expect this to happen in the next few weeks: I don’t expect it to the middle or the end of the fourth quarter. But the next wave will come when the institutions — the state of X, Texas Teachers Union, and those guys — come in, and then you will see Bitcoin hit $20,000 and higher.”

Is $6,000 Possible?

With Novogratz’s comments in mind, it would be prudent to point out that there has been some legitimate talk of a return to $6,000. Dave the Wave, a prominent analyst on Twitter that focuses on Bitcoin’s long-term growth trends, recently explained that a move to that level is entirely logical.

He notes that around $6,000 is where Bitcoin’s logarithmic growth trend, which BTC has historically flirted with to kickstart a bull run, is currently sitting. Moving back down to these levels would also put BTC back on a path to proper “price discovery” and would ensure that the cryptocurrency doesn’t violate any historical cycles.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Facebook Report: Libra May Never Launch

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Facebook Report: Libra May Never Launch

The said launch of Libra, Facebook’s digital currency, has created a wide schism in the world of cryptocurrencies. Some believe that Libra is too centralized for the world’s good. Some back it as a ramp for crypto mass adoption. In the past weeks, Facebook has however faced more significant opposition from without, with US politicians relentless in their criticism. Now, in Facebook’s latest Q2 report, the social media giant has warned that it could back down on the Libra project, as a result of the backlash.

In the report sent to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Facebook says:

“There can be no assurance that Libra or our associated products and services will be made available in a timely manner, or at all.”

Facebook further adds that evolving and uncertain regulations and laws around digital currencies could impede Libra’s launch.

Lack of Prior Crypto Experience

The platform, although with over 2.41 billion monthly active users, further admits that it lacks prior experience with blockchain and crypto technologies. They further said that this disadvantage could affect its ability to not only develop Libra but market it as well.

While testifying to the House Financial Services Committee, David Marcus, the CEO of Calibra, has faced an increasingly harsh reception. D-Calif’s Rep. Brad Sherman has shockingly compared Libra’s operational consequences to those of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Earlier, he said:

“The most innovative thing that’s happened this century is when Osama bin Laden came up with the innovative idea of flying two airplanes into towers. That’s the most consequential innovation, although this may do more to endanger America than even that.”

Sherman has further asked that Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO face congress too. Explaining, he said Facebook is creating a privacy device for human traffickers, tax evaders, terrorists, and sanction evaders. The hearing held at Washington’s Capitol Hill on July 17, 2019, had other legislators tear onto Libra and Facebook, albeit with more restraint.

Congress: Facebook Not Ready for Libra

Members from the US congress on the House committee have been extremity against the social media giant’s plan to delve into financial services. Many of them have highlighted Facebook’s data privacy and election meddling shortcomings as reasons why it is unqualified to run its digital currency.

They have accused Facebook of launching Libra while ill-prepared for the consequences if it fails. Rep. Nydia Velasquez, for instance, told Marcus that Calibra, unlike Facebook, was not dealing with a Silicon Valley product that could be perfected while deployed to the masses.

This rising criticism has not been made easier by the fraud already arising around Libra. There already are websites and social media pages selling fake Libra coins months before the purported launch. The US government has not been the only one worried about Facebook’s currency. Bruno Le Maire, the French Finance Minister and Benoit Coeure an Executive Board Member of the European Central Bank, have also raised their concerns over Libra.

Mark Zuckerberg has in the past said that his company would take its time and ensure that the token satisfies every stakeholder before its launch. Facebook has said that the Calibra and Libra are meant to provide a low-cost method of money transfers. However, most crypto fans have viewed it as a PayPal upgrade or version of WeChat Pay.

Original article written by Jose Antonio Lanz and posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site.

Article posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

CMS and CRM – FREE and UNLIMITED – only at MARKETHIVE

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CMS and CRM – FREE and UNLIMITED –  only at MARKETHIVE

CMS (Content Management System) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) provides two separate objectives in the business software realm. A small business needs both a CRM and CMS and Markethive has them both built-in to make it easier for you. The next generation Inbound Marketing Social/Market Network built on the Blockchain with everything needed to succeed under one umbrella.  

 

What Is A CMS? [Content Management System]

You’ll need a CMS from the outset to build your website/capture page, create content on your blogging platform and get your business up and running. (Think WordPress or Markethive) Even if you're not in business, but want an online presence to showcase a product, start a blog or promote your services, you will need a CMS. 

Key features of Markethive CMS include:

  • Custom domain names: When you join Markethive you receive (for free) a CPanel control panel and WordPress system built into your assigned domain, a subdomain of hivesfeed.com

  • Web hosting: Store your website and all of its data either in the CMS or by integrating with a popular web hosting platform.

  • Site editor: Change the layout of your site, either using code or a drag-and-drop editor.

  • Content Library: Store content for publication including images and videos. 

  • Online-store: Set up a catalog of products and integrate a payment portal so users can shop online via your website.

  • Manages the creation and modification of digital content and typically supports multiple users in a collaborative environment. 

  • Markethive provides capabilities for multiple users to manage content, data and/or information of a website project, or campaign but gives you 100% control of your data. 

Markethive assists you in managing content creation, editing, archiving, publishing, collaborating on, reporting, distributing website content, data, and information.

 

What Is CRM? [Customer Relationship Management] 

CRM is quite different. CRM solutions organize and manage information about leads and customers, and so it is a very important tool. Businesses, sales and marketing teams can utilize this tool to keep track of their leads and make sure they’re communicating with their customers at the most opportune times.

You will need a CRM when you start to accumulate leads and build up your client base. (Think Salesforce orMarkethive)  

Key features of a Markethive CRM include:

  • Contact management: Markethive acquires high-quality connections (leads) we call “associates”. In doing so, you have access to call them on their verified cell phone, email them on their verified email, message them through the Markethive system and the multiple social networks our system nurtures each subscriber to add to their account. 

  • Groups System: There is also the groups' system that shares your customized funnel systems with all Markethive members. Markethive is rich in data, but unlike the other systems, your data is yours and their data is theirs.  Only You control it, not Markethive.

  •  Interaction tracking: Document every interaction that you’ve had with your customer, including phone calls, support requests, and purchase history.

  • Lead management: Allows you to sort to specific folders, sort by Social network, GEO, email, phone, capture page. Transfer from one group to another and delete. Markethive also has funnel page systems that capture leads for you through the Markethive One Click Widget

  • Email management: It has utilized the OAuth technology to capture data via capture widgets through a choice of Social Media Sites situated on your capture pages, blogs and profile pages. You can send email campaigns or follow up directly from your CRM.  Email Deliverability: Main Inbox  99.97% Spam 0.0% Tabs 0.0%  Missing 0.03%  

Free when you subscribe to Markethive. There are no limitations on the amount or size of your list of subscribers and no upcharges. 100 addresses or 1 million addresses, you will experience nearly 100% delivery for no costs, for free.

 

Leads Funnel Technology

Markethive funnel technology is the epitome of Inbound Marketing, or Automated Marketing designed to draw visitors and potential customers in, generating massive leads and customers. Your system includes capture pages, survey pages, and your profile page all serving to bring traffic into your platform turning traffic into visitors, then leads, then customers and eventually promoters on your team.  Organic, qualified leads for your business on a platform where you can cultivate those leads into long term clients. A system that meets marketers needs on every level.

Markethive’s capture pages are twofold. Create capture pages to build referrals into Markethive, direct them to a specific group, set up specific autoresponders. Choose from a vast selection of thumbnail templates, or build a more sophisticated capture page with custom configurations for the more seasoned marketer. Either way, similar systems sell for over $200 per month and are complex and less effective than Markethive’s one-click proprietary enrolment widgets. All of this included for free to the moon Markethive.

 

Markethive On Blockchain With MHV Consumer Coin 

Markethive is a Social Media Market Platform that is essentially a hybrid between the social networks, Inbound Marketing, eBay and exchanges. What makes Markethive different to other alternatives is it's built on the Blockchain providing transparency; anyone can look at how we function and see that we are not spying on you. It also means everything you do is encrypted and private. The platform is completely decentralized, encrypted, private and secure. All of our code is open source, meaning privacy, transparency and free speech is foundational.

The Consumer coin, MHV, is being utilized within the Markethive exchange by way of airdrops, the faucet system, which rewards associates using the platform,  bounties, and loyalty rewards and the upcoming vault. So the coin is used within the commerce of the system thus creating the velocity. The Revenue is a vehicle that is used to buy the Markethive coin back in the free market so it can be redistributed into the economic vortex of the system. This is a fundamental difference to the other systems currently out there today.

The Markethive system has been developed to produce revenue in the traditional sense with the added benefits of the blockchain taking it to the next level. Markethive is a philanthropic endeavor. To give, not take. To help not exploit.

 

 

Conclusion 

This is the next generation of all things from the past. This is where it's at. Combining all forms of media and marketing built on the blockchain is the new era of online business. No more standalone platforms with the need to integrate with 3rd parties to create optimum leads and results. Markethive, 20 years in the making has had the forward-thinking and tenacity to integrate the latest technology to deliver a complete ecosystem for anybody aspiring to work online. 

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

FOLLOW US ON…

Website: https://markethive.com 

Token Site: http://markethive.io/ 

Telegram: https://t.me/markethive_support

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markethive/

Github: https://github.com/markethive /  

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/markethive/  

Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/markethive

Medium: https://www.medium.com/@markethive

Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3309067.msg34535452#msg34535452 

Telegram News: t.me/Markethive

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/Markethive

Facebook: https://facebook.com/MarketHive

Youtube: https://youtube.com/Markethive

 

 

Deb Williams
Market Manager for Markethive, a global Market Network, and Writer for the Crypto/Blockchain Industry. Also a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech.  I embrace "Change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

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7 Tips to Overcome Regret Over Missed Opportunities

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7 Tips to Overcome Regret Over Missed Opportunities

Any missed opportunity can be seen as a chance to learn and drive future growth.

By Young Entrepreneur Council


GETTY IMAGES

Running a company can be quite a gamble at times. Entrepreneurs need to decide what business opportunities to pursue or pass on, often without having any idea of how these opportunities will turn out. Chances are that each entrepreneur has made the mistake of passing on an opportunity that proved to be highly lucrative afterward.

But dwelling on these mistakes and obsessing over how you could have prevented them is both counterproductive and can negatively impact a leader's decision-making when future opportunities present themselves. Below, seven entrepreneurs share their best advice on how to bounce back and overcome regret after losing an important deal or business opportunity.

Own it and learn from it.

"Focusing too much on a lost opportunity can be like carrying around a weight," muses Blair Thomas, co-founder of eMerchantBroker. "When I have carried around too many regrets, it has impacted my ability to see new ventures."

The best approach, according to Thomas, is to recognize what happened and why you missed the opportunity, and then keep track of aspects you should pay more attention to next time. "This approach has helped me find new, even better opportunities," he says.

Look for the next opportunity.

In fact, looking for other, possibly better, opportunities is one of the best ways to overcome the regret that comes with missed business chances, says Serenity Gibbons, local unit lead for NAACP in Northern California.

"I remind myself that it wasn't the only opportunity for success. There are always more out there so I focus my attention on spotting the next one and not letting that one pass me by," she explains.

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Prepare a list of questions for the future.

When looking for the next opportunity, it's important to be so well prepared that you don't repeat the same mistake again, thinks Blair Williams, founder and CEO of MemberPress.

"Look back at your missed opportunity and brainstorm what kind of questions you could have asked but missed out on that would have helped you reach a different or better decision," Williams recommends. "Next time you'll know exactly what to ask to ensure you don't miss out."

Stay hung up.

For entrepreneurs like Aaron Schwartz, co-founder and COO of Passport, staying hung up on a missed opportunity is actually the key to avoiding such mistakes in the future: "Passport is the third business I co-founded. The first one flopped and the second one was on a big trajectory before… flopping. It's frustrating. But I don't pretend that it didn't happen."

On the contrary, Schwartz says, "I think about the business all the time in order to tease out specific decisions that I made. I want to learn from the bad ones (and yes, the good ones) to give Passport the highest likelihood of success."

Fuel your drive to create.

"What you may be feeling is a bit of regret and jealousy. Simply channel those feeling into the next project. Use it to fuel your drive to create," shares Peter Boyd, founder of PaperStreet Web Design.

It's important to reflect on why you passed on that opportunity and what made the next person successful, Boyd explains, but make sure you don't stay bitter: "Keep in mind that just because someone else made it a success, does not mean it would have been a success if you had worked on the project."

Study behavioral finance.

A good approach to overcoming regret in business is studying and learning how to apply behavioral finance, "a subset of economics that analyzes the psychology that influences most business decisions," says CPA Exam Guy CEO Bryce Welker.

"After learning about potential biases by researching this topic, I've been able to identify them in myself in order to prevent missing out on great opportunities. Learning about concepts like the 'gambler's fallacy' and 'conservatism bias' can be extremely helpful," Welker explains.

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Identify the positives.

Being able to find the positive even in a missed opportunity is key to changing your mindset and learning not to dwell on past mistakes, believes Rachel Beider, CEO of Massage Outpost.

"When we are stressed about regretting something, or feeling anxious over a missed opportunity, we don't have access to the resources of our mind," she explains. "Get out of that headspace by asking yourself, 'What else could this mean?' or 'What's great about this?' Chances are you'll be in a better place to move forward."

PUBLISHED ON: JAN 28, 2019

Original article posted on the Inc.com site, by the Young Entrepreneur Council.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin Earning Service Lolli Bags Partnership With Safeway

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Bitcoin Earning Service Lolli Bags Partnership With Safeway

Lolli Bags Big Partnership, Helps to Drive Bitcoin Adoption

To most consumers, getting their hands on Bitcoin (BTC) is an arduous task. For those that aren’t so-called “crypto natives”, onboarding onto an exchange that doesn’t carry that same brand name as, say, E*Trade or TD Ameritrade’s Think or Swim may seem risky, especially when you involve passport details and other personal information. But, there have been companies trying to change this moat, so to speak.

One of these is Lolli, a Bitcoin-centric rewards service that acts much like browser extensions Honey or Rakuten Rewards. Today, the company revealed that it would be partnering with major grocery chains, marking one of its most massive partnerships to date.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, the chief executive of the startup Alex Adelman revealed that his firm is teaming up with Albertsons and Safeway — two popular chains in North America. Safeway has 900 stores; Albertsons has some 2,300.

While the details of the partnership have yet to be fully released, the firm is expected to be offering up to a 3.5% rebate on transactions at the grocery chains, pretty much allowing for investors to rack up dozens of dollars worth of Bitcoin over the course of a year’s digital grocery shopping trips.

This partnership follows one with Hotels.com — a leading travel service that gets over 55 million visits a month according to SimilarWeb data.

Hotels.com joins Priceline, Hotwire, Hilton, the Marriott, and many other travel-centric partners of Lolli. The travel service brings its 325,000 listed hotels and properties, which exist in 19,000 locations, to the table, giving Bitcoin-friendly consumer countless options to travel the globe in return for some juicy BTC kickback.

Lolli is hoping to capitalize on the massive travel industry, which it claims netted over $1.1 trillion in the U.S. alone during 2018. The company claims that if 5% of this $1.1 trillion sum was routed through Lolli and thus Hotels.com, travelers could have made back about “$1,925,000,000 worth of Bitcoin (~170,354 BTC)” just by downloading the web browser application. To some, not using Lolli is just irresponsible.

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Why Lolli?

Lolli was built by devotees to the “stacking sats (satoshis)” movement, which involves Bitcoin diehards that wish to accumulate the cryptocurrency as much possible, usually on a periodic basis. Their ranks include popular commentators in the industry, including Marty Bent, Mr. Hodl, and The Bitcoin Rabbi.

But what’s the deal here?

Well, those that are stacking sats are under the impression that Bitcoin will become a widely-used currency and store of value, making it nonsensical to not accumulate the asset when it’s still young. This ties in with the investment strategy of dollar-cost averaging (DCA), which sees investors spread out purchases over a period of time to reduce risk and increase potential returns.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Cord Cutting Tops Records in Q1 as Skinny Bundles Get Fatter Price Tags

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Cord Cutting Tops Records in Q1 as Skinny Bundles Get Fatter Price Tags

By JANKO ROETTGERS
MAY 3, 2019 11:25AM PT

The flight from traditional pay TV subscriptions reached new records in the first three months of this year, and online TV subscription services did little to provide relief for their operators.

Altogether, the industry lost north of 1 million pay TV subscribers in Q1 after shedding 3.2 million subscribers through all of 2018. BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield called these results “the worst multichannel video quarter sub loss quarter in history” in a blog post this week, pointing to it as proof of his forecast of “a notable acceleration in cord-cutting trends throughout 2019.”

The biggest loser among the major pay TV operators in Q1 was AT&T, shedding a whopping 544,000 subscribers across its Uverse and DirecTV services (with another 117,000 DirecTV disconnections not being included in the company’s quarterly results due to accounting changes). Fellow satellite TV operator Dish lost 266,000 traditional pay TV subscribers, in part due to a carriage dispute with HBO. Verizon shed 53,000 TV subscribers.

Cable companies didn’t fare much better in Q1, with Comcast losing 121,000 video subscribers. Charter lost 152,000 video subscribers. Mediacom also shed 53,000 video subscribers, and Altice / Suddenlink lost a combined 10,000.

Those losses are dramatic on their own, but there’s more bad news for the industry in its Q1 numbers: Online skinny bundles, once seen as pay TV’s best chance to bring long-time cord cutters back into the fold, didn’t do much to stop the bleeding.

AT&T’s online TV service DirecTV Now contracted notably during the quarter, with AT&T losing 83,000 streaming subscribers. That’s a very different picture from Q1 of 2018, when AT&T lost 187,000 traditional TV subscribers, while also adding 312,000 DirecTV Now subscribers.

However, much of that growth could be attributed to lower and promotional pricing for DirecTV Now, which the telco has been gradually moving away from. The price for the cheapest DirecTV Now bundle went from $35 to $40 last summer, and the telco phased out virtually all of its promotional pricing, which allowed some wireless subscribers to stream DirecTV Now for as little as $10 per month.

The latter already contributed to significant defections over the holiday quarter. Over the past two quarters, AT&T lost a total of 350,000 DirecTV Now subscribers. It’s likely that the service will see additional cancellations from price-sensitive customers in the coming months: AT&T further increased the price of the cheapest DirecTV Now bundle to $50 per month in April.

Dish’s Sling TV, which has managed to keep prices comparably low, only grew by 7000 subscribers in Q1. There is no word on how well some of the other online TV bundles performed in Q1; Google doesn’t break out subscriber numbers for YouTube TV, and Sony doesn’t report PlayStation Vue numbers.

Hulu announced this week that it had a total of 28 million subscribers across its service tiers, but didn’t say how many of those are signed up to its live TV bundle. Recent Bloomberg estimates put Hulu’s bundle at 2 million subscribers, with YouTube TV reportedly serving 1 million customers.

But even these new entrants may not be immune to defections as the prices for these so-called skinny bundles are getting fatter across the board. Sports-focused fuboTV announced a $10 price hike in March, and Hulu and YouTube TV both raised their prices by $5 over the past couple of months.

These massive pay TV defections are increasingly impacting the media industry at large. Discovery reported a 4% decline in subscribers to its cable networks for Q1, despite the addition to online TV bundles.

BTIG’s Greenfield expects that cord cutting will also “negatively impact broadcast and cable network programmer retrans/affiliate revenues” in the current quarter. And he does’t expect online TV bundles to make up for those losses, despite the fact that programmers get paid more per online subscriber since “churn is dramatically higher” for online bundles.

Greenfield believes that programmers have no one but themselves to blame for skinny bundle defections. “Legacy media’s forced bundling tactics continue to put business models and profits ahead of the consumer which is ALWAYS a long-term losing proposition,” he wrote.

Original article posted on the Variety.com site, by Janko Roettgers.

If you're looking to cut your cable and save money by streaming media, try NUmedia.

Get a 7-day FREE trial by click on this link.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Manny Pacquiao vs Keith Thurman

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Manny Pacquiao vs. Keith Thurman fight prediction, odds, tale of the tape, expert pick, complete breakdown

It's a huge welterweight showdown from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night

It's 2019 and Manny Pacquiao is back in the A-side role of a pay-per-view fight in Las Vegas.

In a true testament to the greatness and longevity of the 24-year professional, Pacquiao will enter Saturday's title bout against unbeaten WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman as the betting favorite when the two touch gloves inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena (Fox PPV, 9 p.m. ET).

For the 40-year-old Pacquiao, the only fighter in boxing history to win titles in eight divisions, the fight moves him one step closer to proving he's the best 147-pound fighter in a crowded and dangerous division. It would also help cement even further his Hall of Fame resume with a victory over a prime and powerful opponent who lacks nothing in terms of speed and technique.

It may come as no surprise that the 30-year-old Thurman isn't expecting to roll over for the Filipino icon. The brash champion, known as "One Time," has predicted a knockout of Pacquiao and has willingly stated his intention to retire him.

"I say I'm going to put him to sleep because I've got power," Thurman said during Wednesday's final press conference. "I want to remind the world of something, something very simple: I'm Keith 'One Time' Thurman. I have the name for a reason, not a short season.

"Manny isn't going to do anything. With the little 'T-Rex' arms. He's about to get beat up. I get to punch a Senator in the face and he's going to feel it. If he's upset about it, he can do something about it Saturday night. It's called swing, swing, swing baby."

True to form, Pacquiao has been anything but offended and has brushed off the trash talk in favor of focusing on his hopes for a toe-to-toe clash that excites the fans.

"For me, nothing is personal," Pacquiao said. "I have to do my job and there is nothing personal with him. Our job is to fight and he has to prove something, and I have to prove something. That's why I'm so motivated for this fight and this training camp."

The fight will take place in the gambling capital of the world, however, and Thurman hasn't hidden from the fact that he has placed a substantial bet on himself to score an early knockout.

"I'm a winner in life, and to bet on myself to win in the opening rounds," Thurman said. "It makes me do what I said earlier, which is swing, swing, swing. You've got to swing to hit a home run. You can't just sit there and pump fake all day."

What's at stake

The two fighters will unify the WBA welterweight title thanks to said sanctioning body's decision to promote multiple titles in the same division. Pacquiao, who holds the WBA's secondary version, has never held the WBA's full title and lost his shot at winning it in his 2015 unification bout with Mayweather.

Along with Thurman's world title, the winner will get the opportunity to likely face whoever comes out of the September unification fight between Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter. Because of the questions facing each fighter coming in (from Pacquiao's age to Thurman's recent layoff and his shaky performance against Josesito Lopez in January), the idea that both are competing for their fighting future on the elite level also isn't out of the question.

Even though Thurman is an established champion who owns career-defining wins over Porter and Garcia, this fight also offers him a shot at potential crossover stardom should he be able to win in defiant fashion in front of a large PPV audience.

To read the original and complete article go to the CBS Sports site. Original article was written by Brian Campbell.

Who has the edge in power, speed, technique, defense and intangibles? Find the answers to these questions by reading the complete article. Use the link above. You can also read the author's fight "prediction" and pick in that article.

Are you looking for a way to watch the fight, but don't want to pay the high Pay-Per View price? Give NUmedia's streaming media service a try! I’m NOT sure the fight will be streaming on NUmedia, but it’s worth a try as Pay-Per View is one of their many features.

Signup for a 7-day FREE trial to watch Live HDTV channels, Videos on Demand, Spanish Channels, International Channels and Pay-Per View.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin Spikes 10 in Minutes Up to 10800 From 9100 Bottom

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Bitcoin Spikes 10% in Minutes, Up to $10,800 From $9,100 Bottom

Bitcoin Spikes Higher in Unexpected Surge

Wow, well that was quick. In the past two hours, Bitcoin (BTC) has gained over 10%, rallying from $9,400 to $10,600. Most of this rally actually took place in a few minutes, with the cryptocurrency gaining around $800 of that move higher in a matter of a single five-minute candle. To say that the crypto market is volatile is an understatement, that’s for sure.

Per Kruger, this rally was entirely unexpected. “No technical analysis could have predicted that squeeze until it was already half way under way. Bears were fully in control until slightly past 10:30 EST,” he wrote on Twitter.

This 10% spike is the latest in a series of moves that have cemented that volatility is back in the cryptocurrency markets. As industry analytics provider Skew points out, Bitcoin realized volatility levels are “back to levels not seen since the end of the great 2017 bull market.”

This strong surge to the upside comes after CryptoHamster drew attention to a number of reasons why Bitcoin dumping to $9,100 may be the end of the drop.

Firstly, the one-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) and the Stochastic iteration of this indicator are at their lowest levels since at least February, entering the “oversold” range. The one-day Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) has tapped the zero level, despite the fact that Bitcoin is in a raging bull market according to most analysis.

Also, the Elder’s Forse Index, an indicator meant to exhibit the strength of moves, is at its lowest since November 2018; and historical volatility is almost at 100%, implying a move to the upside to return volatility to levels deemed normal.

Despite all this, there are some that suggest BTC still needs to correct further to return to more sustainable levels. $8,000 seems to be the local bottom that most are keeping their eye on, but this recent boom may put a damper on a move to that level.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe