[opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches
- From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2017 09:38:54 -0400
On Mar 19, 2017, at 10:04 PM, Manfredi, Albert E <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Perhaps, if you're changing your tune now. I've been saying that competition
is the only thing that keeps prices under control. You've been saying that
the content owners would never let their high value content outside your "the
bundle," so that prices would always stay high.
I'm still waiting for real competition...
You are correct that I believe the congloms will continue to use bundling to
sell their content. ALl we are seeing is some tweaking around what constitutes
a bundle. There is no evidence that the congloms want to go direct and offer
every network on an ala carte basis.
CBS All Access is the outlier here. I believe that this is a prime example of
how a conglom can create a Trojan Horse to demonstrate why ala carte pricing
will not work.
As far as I can tell, Craig, you were championing the cause of "a la carte"
program offerings at a time when the conditions were entirely against it.
Because the neutral Internet was not yet a viable TV content distribution
medium, so there was no earthly reason for MVPD operators to do what you
wanted.
I have championed ala carte pricing for decades Bert. THERE IS NOTHING to
prevent EVERY MVPD from offering ala carte pricing for their digital services.
This was difficult with analog cable, but ala carte pricing for their new
digital services would likely have accelerated the demise of the analog tiers.
In any case, the analog tiers are mostly gone, but ala carte pricing is nowhere
in sight.
Moving forward, nothing is going to change with respect to ala carte pricing.
The Internet if filled with walled gardens and subscription TV bundles. The
only meaningful change we will see is more variations in how the bundles will
be constructed. We are already seeing this with the Dish DBS service; it is
likely that we will see more flexible bundles from ALL of the facilities based
MVPDs as new VMVPD bundles become available this year.
So in your usual contrarian way, now that there is a neutral and competitive
medium, for carriage of TV content, now you refuse to see how the content
owners are changing their business models. Now you feel compelled to believe
that nothing has changed, that the same "bundles" have merely moved to the
Internet.
No need for "oligopoly" or "politician" conspiracy theories to explain any of
this, Craig. But I'm heartened that maybe you're changing your story.
Same old story Bert.
The only real change is that the oligopolies have pushed the upper limits on
consumer tolerance to the cost of their TV addiction. This too is a technique
used by monopolists facing fundamental changes to their business. They know
that prices are going to moderate, so they push prices up on the legacy
services that will be replaced to create an artificially high price ceiling for
the service that will replace it.
Like most MVPD subscribers, I'm EAGER to replace my legacy service with a VMVPD
service that costs about half of what I am now paying. Given the economies
realized by internet distribution, the content congloms will be more than happy
to get $40/mo from MVPD subscribers as they move to VMVPD bundles.
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Other related posts:
- » [opendtv] UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Monty Solomon
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- John Shutt
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Leonard Caillouet
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Leonard Caillouet
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches - Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches- Manfredi, Albert E