I could not come up with a better way to illustrate what would easily happen,
if net neutrality had not become mandated. This one comment says it all: "We
would partner with almost anybody, but our interests have to be aligned," where
"we" would refer to the (fortunately hypothetical) non-neutral broadband
provider.
The good news is that today, these obstacles only exist in the walled up,
non-neutral spectrum of the cable MVPDs. Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Sling, etc.,
are available to all of the cable households, if they buy the broadband
service. No begging necessary.
Bert
------------------------------------------
http://www.multichannel.com/blog/bauminator/amazon-eyes-access-cable-box/411439
Amazon Eyes Access to the Cable Box
Exec says company is 'open' to MVPD partnerships
3/10/2017 12:45 PM
Author: Jeff Baumgartner
Amazon is interested in integrating its OTT and SVOD content on MVPD set-top
boxes, though it's unclear if the company is nearing any agreements that would
enable it to pull off what Netflix has already done on boxes distributed by
Comcast, Liberty Global and TiVo's array of cable operator partners, which
includes Liberty-owned Virgin Media in the U.K.
"Amazon is definitely open to those partnerships and to be fair, we haven't
done as much there as Netflix have done," Alex Green, managing director of
Amazon Video, said Thursday at the Cable Congress conference in Brussels,
according to Bloomberg.
Green said Amazon does talk "to all sorts of players in the cable industry."
"We would partner with almost anybody, but our interests have to be aligned,"
Balan Nair, Liberty Media's CTO, said at the event, the report added. "When our
interests and Amazon's interests are aligned, you'll see them on it, but at
this point there's a reason they're not on our box."
Nair didn't elaborate on any specific business or technology-related reasons
that would keep Amazon off the MSO's set-top platform, but Liberty Global does
have a multi-year deal to offer Netflix on set-tops, and has also been offering
access to YouTube on set-top boxes in certain markets.
RELATED: Liberty Global: Netflix for All
It's possible that some of Amazon's interests might not line up with certain
MVPDs because Amazon is rumored to be developing a competitive OTT pay TV
offering. Additionally, its Amazon Channels offering, available to Amazon Prime
customers, sells subscriptions to services from premium programmers such as
Starz, Showtime and HBO.
Still, Amazon's apparent interest in set-top integration comes as MVPDs show a
greater willingness to embrace OTT services, including Hulu's SVOD service, on
their set-top platforms.
RELATED: Sharpening The Aggregation Edge (subscription required)
Comcast, for example, also has plans underway to integrate Sling TV on X1 boxes
(because of Comcast's interest in making Sling's international programming
available) as well as YouTube (but not YouTube TV, the OTT player's coming
virtual MVPD offering).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
