[opendtv] Re: Free DBS and Cable?
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 23:40:55 -0500
At 6:50 PM -0500 11/9/05, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
>If a free tier is offered by these subscription
>services, it would be primarily to lure people away
>from OTA and onto their walled garden.
You Bet! It's called marketing and promotion...
Something broadcasters don't have a clue about, despite the fact that
they are used very effectively by many companies to market products.
And what happens if the economic model shifts away from advertiser
supported programming, OR the multichannel services are forced to
sell channels on an ala carte basis.
This industry is about to get a lesson in competition. The entrenched
interests in the media business and government have done a very
effective job of propping up a dying business model. There's a huge
pile of money in play here, and consumers are soon going to have see
the benefits of a competitive marketplace for content.
>The ultimate
>objective is not to shift income from the "haves" (the
>paying subscribers) to the "have nots" (the freeloaders),
>but rather to increase their paying subscribers.
Yup. If you are on their platform they have an arsenal of tools to
promote the stuff you are willing to pay for. It's like all the crap
at the movie theater before you get ot see what came and paid for.
The "premium world" depends upon the promotional muscle of the "free
world" to sell their product. The TV networks are among the top
advertisers on radio...they need to promote their product to get
people to watch. Free advertiser supported TV is not going away.
Hopefully the current practice of paying fees to advertiser supported
networks is going away.
>
>Should free OTA TV go away, IMO, the first thing that
>will happen is that the free tiers would also disappear
>from DBS and cable. I haven't seen any indication that
>the FCC will mandate a free tier from these services.
Not likely. You need a commons where you can sell your content to the
masses. You need the current promotional engine that turns athletes
and actors into millionaires.
>
>Also, as Mark Schubin has pointed out many times, there
>are situations in which neither cable nor DBS can be
>used as easily as terrestrial OTA.
True. Terrestrial TV has its place. But that is not what we are
discussing here. At least not in principle. It is logical that a Free
service would be a source of content for a free tier on a cable or
DBS system. As you note later, the basic/basic or lifeline service is
primarily the local broadcast stations.
>
>And finally, the OTA I get today, just NTSC, is better
>than what a basic-basic (unadvertized but available)
>service from Cox would provide me. More stations,
>because OTA gives me Baltimore/Annapolis as well as
>the Washington area stations. I'd expect any free tier
>to be no better than this basic-basic package?
In your situation what you say is true. But it is only true if you
are comparing the most basic cable service to your OTA "menu." A very
high percentage of cable subscribers get the extended basic service,
which you cannot duplicate with the OTA stations you receive. What
you receive is mostly a duplication of what you would get if you
could only receive the Washington stations.
Regards
Craig
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