[opendtv] Re: Distribution outside the bundle
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2015 00:17:43 +0000
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> Really? When did the power utilities get in the content business?
Really? What do you think those power lines carry, Craig? Do you think the
utilities have no investment in what the lines carry? Interesting.
> Cable companies had little choice but to become yet another
> local utility monopoly.
Yes, I agree with that part at least. Unless wireless 4G or 5G changes that
local ISP competition picture significantly. It might, but so far, wireless
broadband is much too expensive.
> In the end it really does not matter. The MVPDs protest, then
> agree to new license terms, then raise their rates to cover
> what the content owners demand, while adding a bit for
> themselves.
No big surprise, Craig. We've been over this a zillion times. Any
inadequately-regulated monopoly would do the same thing. The Internet is
changing matters, though, especially the millennials, if you search out the
figures.
> I can't argue that content competition is similar to
> distribution competition - it's not.
>
> But the reality is that the MVPD pipes ARE NEUTRAL.
Whoa, let's not get confused again. It doesn't matter whether MVPDs carry much
of the same content. The point is that the content owners compete against one
another, but the old fashioned TV content distribution pipes do not. Or
certainly, not nearly to the same degree. Not even close, Craig. The fact that
the distribution pipes do not compete adequately, with the MVPD model, in turn
allows the content owners to play silly games **ON THESES NON-COMPETITIVE
PIPES**, such as colluding to create bundles. And aside from that, the
traditional MVPD pipes are not device-neutral either.
> You certainly COULD subscribe to a MVPD service - you
> choose not to.
And this too totally misses the point. In the past, you could only subscribe to
*a* MVPD. You could only choose from *their* content choices, bundles, tiers.
More recently, you may have a couple of choices if you're lucky, but the cost
and connection hassles get you stuck with that one choice, in practice.
Remarkably, TVE only tries to perpetuate that same only-one-practical-choice
model, even after it is no longer necessary.
It's not a question that I COULD choose to subjugate myself to that
single-choice model, Craig. It's that no one has to anymore. (Of course, there
was always OTA, but OTA TV was deliberately kept underused, even after the UHF
frequencies and DTT became available. Luckily, use of the Internet for TV
content has way too much demand for that same scenario to play out again.)
> Just because some people are beginning to use the
> Internet to consume video content, it does not mean
> that everyone is doing so.
Once again, "everyone" will not be doing so overnight anyway, Craig. So that's
a red herring. The only thing that matters here is whether the Internet can
handle the increasing volume AS IT OCCURS. And if you read that Wired article I
posted just now, the Internet seems quite capable of keeping up.
Bert
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