[opendtv] FCC on multichannel distributor competition
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 13:10:46 -0400
Speak of the devil, this just out:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-169A1.pdf
In short: "In this Order, we find that the exclusive contract
prohibition continues to be necessary to preserve and protect
competition and diversity in the distribution of video programming, and
accordingly, retain it again for five years, until October 5, 2012."
Which means, same restrictions as before, on exclusive contracts between
content providers and a MVPD.
"[t]he competitive landscape of the market for the distribution of
multichannel video programming has changed for the better since 1992.
The number of MVPDs that compete with cable and the number of
subscribers served by those MVPDs have increased significantly. We find,
however, that the concern on which Congress based the program access
provisions - that in the absence of regulation, vertically integrated
programmers have the ability and incentive to favor affiliated cable
operators over nonaffiliated cable operators and programming
distributors using other technologies such that competition and
diversity in the distribution of video programming would not be
preserved and protected - persists in the current marketplace."
This stuff addresses the MVPDs only.
OTA broadcasters are already competitive on their OTA medium. Using the
same arguments they make here, OTA broadcasters can be allowed exclusive
agreements with content providers. But the problem with OTA is that
these content providers get paid more if they use the MVPDs.
Craig's approach is to create a similar local monopoly in OTA as we have
with the MVPDs. Mine is to go the other way. Since it is impractical to
have competition among cable systems in any given location, perhaps it
is in these cable systems that "content and carriage" need to be
strictly separated.
Bert
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
