[opendtv] Re: FW: Intel Will Lead Us to à la Carte Pay TV

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:13:19 -0500

At 9:55 PM +0000 2/26/13, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
So once again I ask, why should the CE vendors care? Are they on the take? Cliff says yes. Seems that you are saying yes too now, since Cliff said so.
None of that had anything to do with the CE vendors - not the traditional vendors nor the new CE industry (Apple, Samsung, and the rest of the mobile device manufacturers).
To the best of my knowledge the CE companies that are making smart TVs are not getting any sharing revenues or other kickbacks. They are simply trying to make it possible to access some OTT services via their new TVs. If anything, these traditional vendors are just trying to get out in front of Apple, Intel, Roku et al, by bringing crappy, limited products to market, before the new CE vendors figure it out.
The CE vendors should sell the best possible Internet TV product. What TV material the US congloms and the foreign TV networks permit to cross borders varies hugely, and it's no business of the CE companies to help decide for me what I can and cannot have access to. That decision should ONLY be on the part of the content owners.
And it is. It is their servers that decide whether to connect with each device. This involves both technical standards, regulation, and politics. For example, you mentioned a specific TV station website. As you may be aware from conversations in the past, U.S. broadcasters protect their local markets, in part to honor the syndication rights they have for programming. In other words, if you don;t live in that market you cannot access that content. Take a look at the article I just posted about ABC talking to affiliates about TV everywhere. In essence they are trying to duplicate the local affiliate model via the Internet.
RAI and TF1, just two examples I'm quite familiar with, often do prevent one from watching their normal TV content, aside from news shows. But for example, a couple of days ago I had no trouble watching a TV drama from RAI 1. And there are plenty of short features, clips or what have you, that are also always available.
What foreign broadcasters do in the U.S. has no relationship to what the congloms do outside of the U.S.
If you are finally agreeing that the CE vendors are on the take, one wonders why you had to argue so long before admitting this may just be the case.
I do not agree. The traditional vendors are just trying to figure out the next big thing and are mostly clueless. The new CE vendors are unable to obtain meaningful rights that would break up the conglom collusion. 

Regards
Craig


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