[opendtv] Re: Apple in Talks with Comcast About Streaming-TV Service - WSJ.com

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2014 01:30:56 +0000

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

>> So now, collude with the other party instead, the MVPD. That's
>> what's happening here. Not sure how you can miss it. Apple
>> can't acquire exclusive content direct from the owners? Then
>> get it from an existing walled garden, of course.
>
> Uhhhhhhhhh Bert. That is what unbundling of the STB was supposed
> to do. This is not collusion.

That's disingenuous, Craig. The original idea was that any CE manufacturer 
could build its plug-and-play TV appliance WITHOUT having to go begging, hat in 
hand, to the MVPDs. Apple is instead going begging, hat in hand, to Comcast, 
for that exclusive privilege. You really don't see the difference?

This isn't Apple coming to the rescue, because the FCC didn't put its foot 
down. This is Apple playing along in the walled garden game.

> The only fundamental changes with what is possible today is that
> the delay between original broadcast in a walled garden, and
> availability via free sites has become shorter, and many programs
> are now available as VOD, with or without commercials.

Okay, I'll buy that, and to me that's an important fundamental change, and also 
signals a trend. Apple might have put some of that content on iTunes, but at a 
price point that made it unattractive for regular everyday TV viewing. To me, 
that doesn't count. That's more like buying the DVDs.

> You note that the cable systems own their cables and can determine
> who gets to use them, except for the portion dedicated to the
> public ISP service. As the majority of homes in the U.S, get their
> ISP service via a cable or telco service that ALSO offers the
> walled garden bundle, There can only be two possible resolutions
> of the problem:
>
> 1. Make the MVPDs unbundle their services so that third parties can
> create devices that use both the ISP and MVPD services.
>
> 2. Negotiate access to the walled garden content directly with the
> content owners.
>
> Got any other ideas?

The best is more in line with your #2. Your #1 perpetuates these monopolies.

The FCC classifies new entrants in the field, such as Netflix and Amazon, as 
MVPDs, for the purpose of forcing the content owners to offer them fair terms 
to their content (and content owners wouldn't object if they got their revenues 
anyway). And then the FCC enforces network neutrality of the Internet portion 
of ISP/MVPD nets. And then you let the market forces take effect.

That's what is actually happening. As people demand Internet TV, the content 
owners are already taking notice. No reason to pretend this isn't happening, or 
to reinforce a distribution model that was born in the 1960s.

Bert

 
 
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