[opendtv] Re: Broadcasters, Cable Spar over Retrans

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:48:07 -0500

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

>> First, there are multiple congloms, competing against one another.
>
> You can call this competition if you like, but they act as an oligopoly,

Again, let's not rehash the same things over and over again. They do compete, 
just as much as many other industries do, and they sell their stuff all around 
the world. Not all competitive markets consist of hundreds or thousands of 
independent competitors.

>> Second, in every case, these congloms make their premium material
>> available FOTA. And have not even indicated that they will stop doing
>> so.
>
> NO, they only make certain content available via FOTA,

No matter how you choose to wordsmith and twist this, Craig, the very vast 
majority of what causes the huge uproar from MVPD subscribers is when main 
network content is subtracted from MVPDs. Content that IS available FOTA. Not 
your minor cable-only channels. The leverage comes from the main TV network 
content.

>> And thirdly, the MVPDs have it in their power, any time they choose, to
>> unshackle their subscribers. And by so doing, to give back to the
>> congloms more precisely what is their due. Giving them far less leverage
>> in manufacturing overly high rates. 
>
> Not certain what you mean here,

We just went through this. MVPDs, on their own initiative, asking permission 
from no one at all, can choose to sell the main network content channels (as 
well as any other channels) on an a la carte basis. They can charge whatever 
the congloms ask, a la carte. And if the congloms tie this content to their 
other cable channel content, ditto. Now the subscribers pitch in exactly what 
they want, and the congloms get back from the MVPDs exactly what people are 
willing to buy.

As long as the congloms are asking for a set amount per subscriber, this is 
such an obvious counter-move that it makes me totally convinced we have no good 
guys in this debate.

> They are not going to suddenly turn on their content partners and tell
> consumers they have been screwing them for decades with program bundles.

The message being, you are entirely off base when you place the blame for 
higher and higher subscription fees on the congloms. The MVPDs have it 
completely in their power to allow this market self-regulate as it should, and 
if they don't do so, it's only because they (the MVPDs) benefit.

> In reality there's not much the MVPDs can do about the situation, as the
> congloms control what is available,

> IF you doubt this, look at the comments to the FCC from the cable industry
> in the retrans consent proceeding.

Quelle surpise! Self-serving comments. I just explained how the MVPDs can fight 
back.

> When I got my first Nextel Cellular phone it cost me a couple hundred bucks
> a month for a VOICE ONLY service. Now we have an AT&T family plan with four
> iPhones, broadband, unlimited messaging and all the minutes we can eat for
> about the same monthly price.

Odd. I was paying less than $15/mo in my initial plan. Every time you go to 
re-up your subscription, they have some new, more expensive plan, that is 
mandatory for whatever new phones you might want.

Bert

 
 
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