[opendtv] Re: The rationale for retrans consent from local broadcasters

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 03 Oct 2015 09:29:50 -0400

On Oct 2, 2015, at 9:27 PM, Manfredi, Albert E <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

We've been over this a ton of times, Craig. Exactly the same thing happened
with Aereo.

It happened to Aereo because of the precedents set with the 1992 Cable Act.

The simple fact is, if you charge customers for the use of someone else's
product, particularly if you charge on an ongoing basis rather than a
one-time installation fee only, the owner of the product has a perfect right
to demand his share.

We've been over this tons of times. As long as CATV systems were in the
business of extending the reach of OTA broadcasters, nobody complained that
they needed compensation. The CATV systems helped the broadcasters reach a
larger audience. The compulsory license was created in 1976 to eliminate the
need to license everything that the stations licensed for their FOTA
transmissions.

It was only after cable systems started to offer content that competed with
broadcasters that the ^#*¥ hit the fan. The broadcasters got their way and used
retrans consent to take control of cable content.

Now, it would have been easy enough for the cable companies to retaliate,
right? Just offer the customer the option of installing and antenna, and then
reduce the subscription fees accordingly. Many customers would no doubt
object to the antenna, which only proves that the congloms have a right to
compensation. If you charge a monthly fee for your cable, and the customer
DEMANDS that the TV networks be represented on that cable, obviously the
customer values that content. Obviously, this helps spur cable subscriptions.
Obviously, the owner of the content that these free-spenders demand has a
right to compensation.

They could not retaliate. They were and ARE required to offer the signals of
local broadcasters. If you subscribe to cable you cannot opt out. At least with
DBS you can choose not to pay for the local broadcast package.

Too bad, Craig. Your argument only makes to those who adhere to Karl Marx's
principles. In our economy, the only reliable control mechanism is
competition.

There was no competition. Broadcasters were granted a lucrative oligopoly, one
that has been protected with every technological advancement.

So, boiling this way down, the pretense, that local OTA broadcasters own all
the content they transmit, is needed by the FCC, says Craig:

No such pretense exists. They do not own any content other that that which they
create. The LICENSE almost everything they broadcast with contracts that grant
the exclusive rights for their market.

Whoa, it took a whole lot of words for Craig to finally understand that it's
pretense, for whatever reason. So once again, IMO, local broadcasters can and
should find a meaningful new role in the Internet era, so their continued
survival would depend on natural market forces, rather than, you know, not.

With natural market forces Tv broadcasting might already be history. It is the
protection from market forces that is keeping it alive and lucrative.

The Title II decision gets the foot in the door on rate
regulation,

The Title II regulation came just in time. Even if content owners and device
makers collude shamelessly, as Monty's posts demonstrate, at least we'll have
a guarantee that the broadband pipe won't participate in this shameful
collusion.

The broadband pipe is just the newest way to sell your bits. It has always been
about collusion. The Internet does nothing to fundamentally change this. By now
you should realize that there is something different about the way TV is
evolving with the Internet - this time the content oligopoly is not being
disintermediated by the technology - they are controlling it.

Regards
Craig


----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. opendtv
  3. Archive
  4. 10-2015