[opendtv] Re: Users as Toast: The Blocking of Google TV

At 6:03 PM -0500 11/13/10, Albert Manfredi wrote:
Sorry, but that's not the way I see it. The original first and second parties were the congloms and the audience. Before Internet TV became an issue, the colluding third parties were the MVPDs and CE manufacturers who had a stake in building proprietary equipment only for one or more of the MVPDs. 

Amazing...

consumers in collusion with the oligopolies that are screwing them...
Yes, I agree that the consequences of this are as you describe (bundling, increasing prices, etc.). However the blame for this goes to all those neighbors you saw running down the street, chasing down the cable truck, back in the 1980s. So, don't blame the congloms for trying to make a buck from the lemmings running down your street, Craig. The congloms are in there to maximize their profits, like any other business, and these "I got you by the short hairs" third parties are making it oh so easy for them to do so.
So its the consumers fault for watching TV, and migrating to the MVPDs when OTA broadcasters started moving their best content to cable then buying all of the cable networks that people moved to cable for, so they would not have to watch the crap on the broadcast networks.
And all of this enabled by politicians who protect these oligopolies in return for face time on the TV.
It should have been obvious to these people, what they were getting into. Just as it was obvious to me, when the press started hyping up Google TV as some sort of inventor of Internet TV. The hype was totally off base and would lead to similar shenanigans.
Yes Bert, the shenanigans are similar - they are being perpetrated by the congloms to protect their empire.
You are way off base trying to blame Google, Apple, Netflix, et all for caving in to the demands of the congloms. They are trying to create a new infrastructure for the delivery of entertainment and information.
Their only alternative would be to create the content for their devices. But that really would be a walled garden... 

Like the current media empire.
Google and Apple are trying to break up the "Empire" and give consumers a decent alternative that is open to everyone. And please don't tell me yet again how closed the Apple ecosystem is. I can choose to buy only what I want and there's a world of third party developers who are providing very affordable apps; many are free. The only stuff I cannot get is the stuff that the congloms do not want to sell in the "Apple store." That's not Apple's problem.
As I said previously, you don't need anything new to get Internet TV. All you need is for the CE manufacturers to fine tune existing software products for ease of use, at best. And yet, I showed articles that describe how CE manufacturers are supposedly "discovering" that they need to make special deals with content owners, and how Google was doing the same sort of thing, and how access was limited to only a handful of sites.
You are correct that there are many ways to get Internet TV. None of the existing ways are optimized for viewing and navigation on a big screen that is 7-10 feet away. There is no reason that new hardware and software platforms should be prevented from doing a better job.
The reason that these new platforms need to make these deals is because that's the only way the Congloms will play.
If I immediately saw a problem with this overt and unnecessary collusion, why would I be the least bit surprised that the congloms ALSO saw a problem with it? I'm not surprised. Nor should you be.
There is no collusion Bert. You are creating conspiracies where none exist. The real collusion is right n front of your eyes but you are too blind to see it. 




 The FCC has no problem with TVs that incorporate proprietary user
 interfaces and remote controls. That's hardware and software Bert.
Okay. Good point. As far as the FCC is concerned, as long as the devices can interface with the ATSC standard, the device is neutral.
And as long as any Internet TV device accesses web sites that are "open" to PCs the device is neutral.
What I am seeing now is that certain people, assisted by clueless press hype, are trying to introduce the same umbillical bottlenecks into Internet TV as similar third parties did in the 1980s with MVPDs. And of course, I don't like it.
Good. This is the first step to dealing with your inner conflicts. Now try to understand who is trying to control the evolution of TV via the Internet. 

It's the same folks that control your precious broadcast TV empire.
And yes, it does frost me to see whining consumers playing the victim in all of this, when they are the cause.
Stop whining and tell us how to break up the real gatekeepers so that real markets for content can thrive... 

Regards
Craig


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