[opendtv] Re: Commissioner Copps on the Fox vs Cablevision dispute
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:12:01 -0500
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
>> BUT, the fact that ABC, CBS, and NBC might be blocking their content from
>> Google
>> (and therefore from Google TVs) is another matter entirely. That is certainly
>> their right.
> Who is the middleman here Bert?
Google, and the CE manufacturer that forces the consumer to use Google (or a
handful of other sites). The two have colluded, to make Google a mandatory
middleman. Or so I have to believe.
> Is Microsoft the middleman when you use Internet Explorer to access Hulu?
I can use any browser to access Hulu. No one is forcing me to use just one
brand of browser. No one is preventing my browser from accessing sites other
than Hulu. So no, your example is completely irrelevant.
> What collusion is happening with Google TV?
When TV manufacturers only allow access to a handful of sites, e.g. to
GoogleTV, that is definitely collusion. It's saying to the buying public, "You
can watch TV over the Internet, but we (the CE company) have agreed behind
closed doors that we will limit your access only to certain sites, with which
we have made certain undefined, under the table agreements, that you don't need
to know about. And you are given no options to select any other sites." Sounds
like collusion to me.
> Is Google or Sony blocking access to any websites?
If Sony TVs only allows access to online TV through certain sites, then yes,
Sony is limiting access. The Sony Vaio STB did NOT do this, but it seems that
the new Internet connected TVs are. Our LG BluRay player, for example,
certainly does limit what sites you can go to. One of them is NetFlix. I forget
the other three or four. But literally, it's only that many sites. Can I go to
www.tf1.fr with that box? No. Why not? And I can't change that (well, maybe
with some fancy hacking).
> But what is Google doing that is any different than accessing Hulu via a PC
> based
> web browser?
Must be doing something with the CE companies, if the these CE companies agree
to allow access to Internet TV only through Google and a couple of others.
Mostly, it's the CE manufacturers' approach that I dislike intensely (since I
don't know what the few sacred web sites are doing to achieve that status), and
I cannot blame the content owners for rejecting this distribution model.
> This Bert is the kind of stuff that happens when businesses run to the
> politicians for protection and market advantage.
Politicians are doing this? I doubt it very much, Craig. Politicians may have
created the OTA TV national cap and local caps, but so far, they have not done
any such thing for the Internet. Therefore, what I see is that the congloms are
objecting strenuously to the idea that TV manufacturers are trying to control
access to the congloms' content by making agreements behind the backs of the
congloms. And I cannot blame the congloms at all. I would do the same thing,
most likely.
If your beer were under heavy demand, and whatever distributor you are using
now was doing things you didn't like, I'm sure you would have a say in that.
Either set the distributor straight, or use some other distributor.
If you feel vulnerable to the whims of your distributor now, it is only because
you are a microbrewery. But CBS, NBC, and ABC are hardly micro-anything. They
do not have to feel vulnerable to any handful of web sites. They have their own
web sites, and/or they can pick and choose who to do business with. Why?
Because consumers get in an uproar if middlemen can't deliver the conglom
content.
> Funny how there is all kinds of noise about "network" neutrality, when it
> comes to the business that is providing Internet Access, BUT, it is perfectly
> OK for a television network to block access to its content to specific ISPs
> and devices...
Net neutrality SO FAR has been addressed only to the ISP. But what's the point
of making the pipe "neutral" if you're going to turn around and allow device
manufacturers (special interests) to limit your access to that scrupulously
"neutral" pipe? For some reason, you have missed that part of the equation.
Bert
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