[opendtv] Re: More on Verizon & Google
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:26:37 -0500
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> OTA TV is not free either. Somebody is paying the >$40 billion a
> year that the congloms and local broadcasters haul in, not to
> mention the retrans consent fees. The cost is simply hidden, but
> not very well, as the content is constantly filled with ads.
Craig, here's a truism for you: nothing is free. FOTA TV follows the SAME model
that made the Internet as popular as it is today:
1. Content is advertizer-supported,
2. The system is not a walled garden,
3. The system is standards-based entirely, so you can buy the equipment of your
choice to enjoy all the content.
(Yes, the Internet adds to that a huge amount of choice and it is two-way. I
know. But you also have to pay for the hookup fee, which you don't in OTA TV.)
There *may* come a time when TV content owners agree to provide their content
over the Internet using this same Internet-common distribution model, but that
time has not yet arrived. And if anything, we are seeing these same content
owners or TV providers attempting to change the Internet into something
partially walled (e.g. Comcast), or at least something where you pay for
content.
So, I don't see complaining about "special interests" wrt ATSC, at this point.
"Special interests" are painfully present just about anywhere else OTHER THAN
in FOTA TV.
What you propose, consumers explicitly paying for everything, is the old telco
model of the early 20th Century. It's way outdated. It's not what made the
Internet popular. It would kill the Internet as it would kill MVPDs or FOTA TV.
Bert
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