[opendtv] Re: FierceWireless: How Charlie Ergen turned a satellite TV provider into a spectrum powerhouse, and what he might do next

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 10:47:16 -0500

On Feb 1, 2015, at 9:18 PM, Manfredi, Albert E <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> 
wrote:
> Not at all a conundrum! We have talked for a very long time about how cable 
> has a clear role in the Internet TV future, and how the DBS companies do not. 
> And I also suggested that DBS companies could reinvent themselves into 
> satellite ISPs for rural broadband, and/or into OTT sites (given they have 
> rights to lots of content already)?
> 
> Sling TV is simply evidence of the latter type of rebirth. Other MVPDs have a 
> less urgent imperative, because they can still find people out there ready 
> and willing to fork out more and more each month, for the legacy model, even 
> while these cabled MVPDs evolve and improve their neutral ISP services.

Satellite ISP service? Possible, but it does not scale very well. But it may 
make sense for people who are too far from "the grid" to connect. Clearly Mr. 
Ergen has bigger plans...
> 
>> But it looks like Dish is serious about evolving from a DBS
>> service that offers MVPD bundles, into a VMVPD that also offers
>> broadband.
> 
> "Also offers broadband," yes. The AWS-3 spectrum covers 1695-1710 MHz, 
> 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands. I suppose these could be used for 
> satellite or cellular terrestrial, although it does not seem like a lot of 
> spectrum for two-way satellite ISP service? Cellular exploits the spectrum 
> better. And Dish bid through either subsidiaries or partners, don't know 
> which.

Sorry Bert, this was not a DBS auction. It is for terrestrial wireless. They 
are buying up spectrum for a terrestrial wireless data service.
> 
> Craig insists, but I doubt this VMVPD notion, and so does Ergen. Dish already 
> offers the MVPD model wirelessly (from satellite). This article suggests OTT 
> service, not a duplicate of the MVPD model, over a cell network. And/or 
> leasing the spectrum to others, also for cellular service.

ONE LAST TIME BERT!

VMVPD is the acronym for a MVPD service that uses the Internet to deliver 
linear streams of TV entertainment. It has been used in many articles that have 
been posted to this forum.

The FCC is proposing to extend the program access rules for MVPD services to 
services that deliver linear program streams over the Internet:

http://www.fcc.gov/document/commission-adopts-mvpd-definition-nprma

Here they specifically address the Dish And Sony VMVPD services and lump 
Verizon into this group. The NPRM was written last year; Verizon just announced 
that their service will not include the linear program streams that the FCC has 
built its definitions of MVPD service around.
> 34.
> 
> We realize that under our proposed Linear Programming Interpretation, several 
> new and planned services may be considered MVPD services. On the one hand, 
> DISH, Sony, and Verizon have each announced linear Internet-based 
> subscription video services whose launch is imminent.89
> 
> These services reportedly will carry programming from some of the largest 
> content companies in the world.90
> 


> "[Ergen] noted that more and more people are going to view video on mobile 
> devices via over-the-top content models and that Dish would look to launch a 
> new service that 'hopefully is **incremental to the business today**, 
> hopefully has a **different advertising model** than the way we do it today 
> with DVRs, and hopefully, it leads to a mobile business or wireless business 
> that's incremental revenue to our content partners.'"
> 
> To me, this is yet another example of MVPDs morphing into OTT sites, through 
> Internet distribution which is not a duplicate of the old way.

Bert

It is time to take your blinders off. Nothing is static, everything is 
evolving. 

There is nothing new here, as the way entertainment is delivered has been 
evolving continuously since it became possible to deliver entertainment via 
electronic means. 

Yes, traditional business models are "morphing into OTT sites, and at the same 
time new business models like SVOD services are being created. It was 
impossible to use one term (like OTT) to describe the video landscape over the 
past four decades, as we evolved from a handful of broadcast networks, to 
MVPDs, packaged media, video rentals and now to IP delivery over broadband. 
There will be many different business models that use the Internet to deliver 
the entertainment bits. 

MVPD describes services that deliver linear streams (channels). These will 
NEVER go away for live events. But the term does not mean that the service ONLY 
delivers live streams. We will see many attempts to offer different packages 
(bundles?) in order to find the sweet spot where most people will spend their 
entertainment dollars.

There will be true clones of existing MVPD bundles. There will be slimmed down 
packages like Sling. And there will be things we have not even imagined yet.

You are way too hung up on terminology that is being re-invented out of 
necessity. 

MVPD services are evolving with major investments in WiFi hot spots and TV 
Everywhere services. Trying to limit what a MVPD can do is impossible. The FCC 
can create definitions and rules to regulate businesses that meet these 
definitions, as they are doing with the current NPRM that will extend the 
program access rules to the Internet.

The important thing to re beer is that this is an evolving story. Monopolies 
have a way of hanging on, resisting change, then embracing it. There is no 
reason to believe that this technology change will be any different. The good 
news is that consumers will have more options and the TV in the family room 
will no longer be the center of the TV universe.

Regards
Craig

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