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

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2010 07:30:11 -0400

At 4:15 PM -0500 11/2/10, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
Even assuming these wireless options can offer as much as the cabled systems, they are all, so far, set up as umbillicals. Meaning, they are organized and priced with the idea that people will subscribe to one or two at most (e.g. one cabled and one wireless), not many simultaneously (as one does with the OTA TV model).

Why do you keep trying to compare OTA and Over-the-top via broadband?

They are completely different. OTA cannot provide on demand services, except perhaps for limited push programming to local cache. The only strengths of OTA are that it is wireless and free (for now); and for the next few years, it may still offer access to some valuable content franchises such as the NFL.


So yes, if you expect TV to be provided via the Internet in the future, I don't see how that changes anything significantly, other than most likely providing even more choice than what MVPDs offer now.

Correct.

- More choice
- True ala carte
- On demand for pre-produced content
- The ability for content creators to bypass distribution middlemen (the conglomerate gatekeepers)
- A variety of payment options (ad supported; paid; barter)

 > You are assuming that the MVPDs are going to build the server
 infrastructure; to a limited extent they may if it simplifies
 their network infrastructure, but it is more likely that they will
 simply move to a switched digital infrastructure and pull streams
 from the WAN

Anything becomes easy to explain when one ignores the scaling issues.

That was also said when we used the Internet exclusively for e-mail.

The reality is that major players are scaling up to challenge cable.

Regards
Craig


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