[opendtv] Re: Analysis Game Changer!

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 15:07:37 -0400

Tom Barry wrote:

> MVPD's achieved their monopoly by being able to distribute
> information more efficiently than the competition, without
> any particular rights to that content at first.   ISP's
> (including MVPD's) continue to improve this efficiency.  The
> cost to deliver all the bits in an mp3 song is now trivial.
> It will soon also be trivial for many people to download a 1
> hour HDTV show in 720p mpeg-4 format.
>
> Some ISP's will contract for legal rights to content and then
> have to charge the customer more for that privilege, plus
> maybe attempt copy protection.   Some  ISP's will not acquire
> these rights and deliver only bit pipes, leaving the customers
> to find their own content, legal or not.

Except that I was addressing specifically the model suggested by CBS
Chief Research Officer Dave Poltrack.

------------------------------
http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwire/2009/08/game-changer-cbs-research-
guru.php

[ ... ]

Furthermore, Poltrack posits that the broadcast networks might then tear
a page out of the playbook of Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes. Bewkes has
garnered wide attention for an idea he calls TV Everywhere. Under that
plan, cable subscribers, once their subscribership has been
authenticated, would be able to access cable shows online as well as on
their TV sets.

Poltrack suggested that the broadcast networks come up with a similar
plan. Under this scenario, a user's high-speed Internet provider--be it
Time Warner Cable's Roadrunner or a telco supplier or other
provider--would pay a fee for any of their users who want to access
broadcast network progamming online.

And the shows could be accessed by users for free, with commercials, or
with an additional fee (this time paid directly by the user) on a
service like iTunes for a version of the shows with no commercials.

This could be a Holy Grail scenario for the broadcast networks: they get
the dual revenue stream they didn't get when cable started (though now
some networks do have retrans deals, not all of them are for cash).

[ ... ]
------------------------------

Solution 1: Deliver TV content free, but the ISP pays the networks for
each user that watches TV over the ISP net, and the TV networks place
ads in the content.

Comment on 1: In effect, this is a non-premium MVPD, reborn using
Internet Protocols. Why? Because in order for the ISP to pay the
networks for carriage, the ISP needs to charge the TV consumer more than
just his regular broadband charge. Where else does the ISP get this
extra money to pay the TV networks?

Solution 2: The consumer pays for the content, and it comes ad-free.

Comment on 2: This is simply premium cable or PPV. It may be offered in
tiers or a la carte, I would think. Either way, the TV networks STILL
get that user fee from the ISP.

Summary: This "game changer" scheme retains dual sources of income to
the networks, i.e. (a) from the service provider and (b) from ads or
added fee to viewer. Is that a game changer? To the previous cable or
DBS customer, what has changed? The distribution protocol.

Tom, if the networks are expecting the ISPs to pay them for the
privilege of distributing their content, don't you think that the
networks will be very guard jealously over which ISPs that content will
be allowed to flow?

Bert
 
 
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