[opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting
- From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2016 07:14:48 -0400
On Oct 6, 2016, at 11:50 PM, Manfredi, Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
And the same is largely true for the new mobile and connected TV
devices - they also have the ability to connect to the servers.
Only if they ask for, and are granted, special favors.
No Bert, this is just different "client side" software. The new Yahoo View Apps
access the same Hulu servers used for the subscription based services AND the
Yahoo View web browser clients.
There are no special favors, but there may be different access privileges based
on licensing issues or a business decision about what a device can access.
Clearly the new Yahoo View Apps are crippled - they cannot access shows the web
browser client can access.
Those are business decisions Bert. It should be obvious to you that Hulu
decided to focus on subscription bundles and handed off the free service to
Yahoo to let it ride into the sunset.
Apparently Hulu is comfortable with allowing PCs to access some
content that they do not want connected devices to access.
Apparently, the content owners have been comfortable with this for a very
long time.
Yup. But they are not committed to it for the future. They are abandoning this
business model, not embracing it.
And we have seen, even mobile devices CAN access this same content, IF they
support the same streaming protocols as PCs. This is what it means to not
need to collude.
They do support the same protocols Bert, although the web browser version still
requires Flash. But they serve the same shows to App clients using industry
standards including h.264 and HTML5. But they block these devices from the
website that serves PCs.
When I access the following site on my Mac I get the full website:
https://view.yahoo.com/
When I access this site on the web browser on this iPad I get a splash screen
telling me to download the crippled App.
The only limitation is that the iPad does not support Flash. But if I subscribe
to Hulu with their app, I get everything you can access through the website and
more (access to more content and less delay when watching current season
shows). So the protocols and standards used are not the issue. The issue is
their business model.
Perhaps that's one of the big advantages PCs have always had. If a content
owner is not satisfied with the security protections of one solution, any PC
can always adopt different solutions, and work around the problem. For
example, the content owners had a perfectly legitimate beef, with limited-use
appliances all flocking to GoogleTV, because anybody with sense knows how
this monopoly search engine could become an obstacle. But PCs don't need to
rely on just one solution, Craig. That's their advantage. And in principle,
if they weren't trying to control their customers so much, the limited little
boxes could also allow greater freedom.
Yeah right. So the content owners were justified in blocking certain d vices
for potential competitive concerns. Net neutrality be damned!
Again, Microsoft AND OTHERS. You continue to miss this. A Windows or Linux PC
can use any number of streaming protocols, which may or may not even belong
to Microsoft.
That's irrelevant. You can say Microsoft and Intel if you like, as Intel tried
to get into the content protection racket for several years. The reason PCs are
acceptable has NOTHING to do with the protocols and standards they can support.
The deal made it impossible to put unprotected content on the busses of a PC,
Mac, Linux machine or Raspberry Pi. And it required analog output to be limited
to NTSC quality.
So PCs are not beholden to just one solution, that has to be approved, or the
entire box becomes useless. And your little boxes don't need to be so limited
either. They limit themselves for their own self-interests, Craig, certainly
not for their customers'.
The protocols and standards have been evolving constantly Bert, even your
beloved Flash. This is true for all computing devices. The fact that the entire
industry is now moving to standards based solutions rather than proprietary
solutions is lost on you. Flash is dying, and it is quite possible that most of
theses Flash based services for PCs may simply disappear as the content owners
migrate to new devices.
Oops, back to square one with Craig. The most recent article we saw made it
very clear how these streaming devices stacked up in terms of daily use, and
did NOT separate TV from other streaming.
Exactly. They combined all types of streaming in those stats. So those stats
are meaningless unless the time spent watching TV entertainment is broken out.
None of the other articles support your claim either. PCs remain a
significant streaming platform for all manner of streaming, and much greater
than the little limited boxes combined. So, someone must have figured this
out, Craig.
Yeah. Hundreds of millions of consumers who use all of these platforms every
day. But the content consumed on different devices is not monolithic; it is
appropriate for the device. Connected TV devices focus on entertainment for the
TV. Smartphones focus on social media and short video clips. PCs focus on
productivity and streaming services that support it and enterprise commerce. A
small number of PCs are used as TV screens, especially college kids living in
dorms.
The PC is no longer the one device to rule them all - it is returning to the
niche where it started, the enterprise
The largest fraction of their streaming viewership, Craig, other than
smartphones. Yes.
Nope. Not even close.
All I am saying is that the content oligopoly is not going to kill
the goose that laid the golden eggs.
You're just repeating your tired mantra. And I'll just remind you that
content is now being made available in many, many more ways than just two
years ago. You claimed that "the bundle" was too lucrative to allow its
content to be sold other ways? Wrong. That happened. And more so in the
future.
Nothing has changed with respect to the MVPD bundles, other than the Sling
skinny bundle, and now the Dish bundle with add on content packages. If you
want this content you must subscribe to a MVPD or VMVPD service.
The SVOD services are new - an evolutionary change from packaged media and the
rerun channels that have cause the bloat in the MVPD bundles.
And the catch-up sites are a concession to the long term decline of the
broadcast networks - a largely failed attempt to rebuild their ratings, which
continue to decline.
Regards
Craig
Other related posts:
- » [opendtv] B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting - Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Craig Birkmaier
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Manfredi, Albert E
- » [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting- Craig Birkmaier