[opendtv] Re: News: The death of Cable TV

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 19:24:45 -0500

Kon Wilms wrote:

> A long time circulating, but this one sums it up rather well:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/24/internet-tv-and-the-death-of-cable-tv-really/

Very good article. 

> Also, pretty timely since I just cut the cord at our house -
> everything we now watch comes from either Boxee, Hulu Plus, and
> Netflix.
> Not paying someone to provide me with crappy service (Directv),
> hardware and channel selection, is fantastic.
> It would be nice to have working OTA, but at this juncture I don't care.
> Incidentally, the discussion I had with the Directv reps was very
> interesting. They just don't get it. I think they are just as doomed
> as the cable cos.

Sounds like what you could use is the old time CATV approach. Community antenna 
on some nearby hill, no cable-developed content, and a really cheap monthly fee.

Here's one item that came out in a previous article:

"Revenue per viewer-minute is much less online vs. broadcast. This could change 
as more ads appear on the web distribution and they become more targeted and 
interactive."

I am doubtful about the success of interactivity in TV ads (specifically in TV 
ads), but time will tell. I think these Internet TV ads will become ever more 
similar to TV ads now.

Cable ought to have a better chance of reinventing itself than the DBS systems 
have, I think. There is not a lot of choice for wired broadband services, aside 
from cable or telco, and hard to believe that wireless broadband will be able 
to compete in speed, in the long term.

My thinking continues to be that the owners of the most desirable content are 
still willing to transmit FOTA, are *helping* (emphasize helping, and not the 
only cause) to price MVPDs out of existence, and are obviously not comfortable 
with all the new Internet sites that want to provide their programming. As of 
today, looks like the most futureproof option is unfettered Internet access 
plus OTA.

And if enough people do drop their TV-over-cable packages, watch the content 
migrate to the Internet or OTA media.

Bert
 
 
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