[opendtv] Re: AT&T is hiking the price of DirecTV Now, despite promising lower consumer prices in the Time Warner trial
- From: "Manfredi (US), Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2018 00:27:37 +0000
Monty Solomon wrote:
AT&T is hiking the price of DirecTV Now, despite promising lower consumer
prices in the Time Warner trial
The company's actions contrast with its testimony in the Justice Department's
landmark antitrust case.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/07/03/att-is-hiking-price-directv-now-despite-promising-lower-consumer-prices-time-warner-trial/
As the article points out, and as I suspected at the time of the trial, the
courts were most likely unacceptably myopic and clueless. They treated this
like any merger, e.g. Disney and Fox, and didn't grasp the significance that
one of the parties merging is a giant ISP network.
A guarantee of net neutrality would have mitigate the chances for funny
business, but the &%$^* in charge at the FCC is doing his best to ensure, even
encourage, funny business.
I guess these judges tend to be older, and to be lawyers, and this is why they
seem so out of touch with the technical issues. They're still living in a world
where legacy cable TV was thought to be high tech.
The article points this out, but I'll bet the courts didn't get it: DBS is on
the decline, given its inability to morph into a broadband service, and given
that OTT sites can do everything DBS does, and much more. That's why both DBS
companies have been migrating to the Internet. For years now.
Since these geniuses missed the obvious again, the idea should be that the
neutral (**and monopolistic**) ISP should play no part in determining the
content, or the price of the content, running over the "common carrier" telecom
service it is providing. That is what telecom neutrality has always been about.
Anyone who thinks that the Internet is just another frivolous cable TV service
needs to be put in a position of being harmless. Not in a position of making
these far reaching decisions.
Bert
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