[opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting

From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2016 23:49:56 +0000

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

Which is EXACTLY the point. As you pointed out when you posted
this article, were nearly there WITHOUT the FCCs help. Yet the
FCC now wants to regulate connected TV devices and services, after
twenty years of allowing the MVPDs to keep forcing subscribers to
rent STBs.

Craig needs to learn the concept of "consistency of message." The FCC kept a
low profile in regulating the MVPDs, Craig, and now you seem to be implying
they needed to do more. Plus, in the new STB ruling, what the FCC thinks it
might need to regulate, with respect to it, is all OBE. You say, FCC, none of
that is required, once the STB idea is put to rest. Connected TV services?
Ditto! Because we have Title II, those connected TV services compete openly,
and we allow the non-Internet aspects of TV delivery to wither and die off on
their own.

Consistency, Craig.

Thanks. So you are now saying that the FCC should leave this NPRM
sitting on the table, and just let the marketplace work things out.

Yes, BUT, only because we have Title II in place already. And this is what you
continue to miss. There is still an anti-competitive element in this equation,
which is the provider of broadband service. That anti-competitive element, if
allowed to operate open-loop, would simply recreate the MVPD model, using IP
perhaps.

Bull. The Title II decision, and proposals like this NPRM are having
a chilling effect on potential competition.

Libertarian banalities with no basis in fact. Prove it, Craig. Prove that
Goggle Fiber and Verizon FiOS were abandoned or curtailed because of the
neutrality mandate.

Yup. I told you that for a month or two before you finally understood.

Craig has no shame. You claimed it was government regulations that caused this,
without ever explaining how. Or substantiating your claim. I've been telling
you that the problem was simply cost. I told you from day 1 that FTTH was too
expensive to jump into exclusively, even while you and the others trade scribes
were hyping it up.

Really?

Apple TV is now an open platform for which anyone can create Apps.

Let us know when you have access to Yahoo View and to all the other TV web
sites I can access, Craig. Try for example wwitv.com.

Other services require the customer to subscribe via a website so they
don't have to give Apple a cut.

Why SHOULD Apple get any cut? Craig needs to understand what collusion is. Here
he is, trying to justify it. Remember when you were championing "separate
content from carriage?" Well, that was simplistic, in the sense that for OTA
TV, it's not essential at all. OTA TV remains competitive, even if he TV
network own their own stations. But it made sense in monopolistic systems like
cable.

Well, now you should expand your thinking to "separate content from carriage
from playback hardware."

Bert

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Follow-Ups:
- [opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting
  - From: Craig Birkmaier

[opendtv] Re: B&C: Set-Top Box Proposal Pulled From FCC Meeting

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