Charter ruffles feathers in Michigan; Happy birthday, TV

More cable news from across the Web:

> Change is always hard, and Charter Communications subscribers in Michigan are experiencing big changes with their cable service there as Charter continues its analog-to-digital conversion throughout the state. Customers are now required to pay for a cable box for each TV and customers aren't happy, according to the Livingston Daily, even though the first box is free for the next 12 months. Article

> DirecTV CEO Michael White warned content companies not to make over-the-top services too attractive to consumers because it could cannibalize the convention pay TV business. "If you make it too good you're going to cannibalize the [conventional pay TV] business."  Article

> BIA/Kelsey expects U.S. social media advertising to reach $15 billion within in the next four years representing a compound annual growth rate of 24 percent. Social media advertising totaled $5.1 billion in 2013. BIA/Kelsey attributes the substantial uptick to an explosion in mobile and native advertising. Most of native advertising growth comes from Facebook's News Feed ads and Twitter's Promoted Tweets, according to the research firm. Article

> More than 1 million Ultra HD/4K sets were shipped in March, according to IHS Technology--a significant boost from the 323,000 units in January and 384,300 shipments in February. IHS attributed the surge to pre-stocking orders for China's Labor Day holiday at the start of May, and the coming FIFA World Cup in June. The research firm predicts UHD shipments will rise to 68.4 million units by 2018, up 350% from 2014. In comparison, IHS sees TV panel shipments in general rising just 12%. Article

And finally... Seventy-five years ago today, Philo Farnsworth produced the first electronic television picture, sparking a technological breakthrough that changed society forever. Today, Americans spend an average of four hours and 28 minutes watching TV or video programming, according to eMarketer. Mobile comes in second with 33 minutes and online video came in third with 22 minutes. Article