[opendtv] Re: Linear streams
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2015 23:47:00 -0400
On Jul 20, 2015, at 9:14 PM, Manfredi, Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.cox.com/myconnection/watch/entertainment/online-apps.cox?campcode=ws_mc_tv-apps_051214
"Put the power of our mobile apps in your pocket or in your hand wherever you
go. Watch live streaming TV in home with the Contour app or take it with you
with our many network TV apps and online access. Access to specific network's
TV app is free to customers who subscribe to that channel."
Read that last sentence. The TVE package you get depends on what you
subscribed to.
Yes Bert. I've told you that a hundred times...
But thanks for the Cox link. I had no idea there were so many more TV
Everywhere Apps available! Quite a few have been added over the last six months.
And the TVE package you may have also depends on what deals the MVPD made
with the content owner. On this last point, read this. Yes, it's from 2012,
but it proves that the MVPDs get different deals in place, as to what they
provide with TVE:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/05/tv-junkies-rejoice-you-can-now-watch-shows-and-movies-just-about-everywhere/index.htm
This article is hopelessly out of date and covers a range of products that have
nothing to do with what the industry is now calling TV Everywhere. It includes
a variety of services developed and offered by individual MSOs like Comcast.
Many of these deals pre-date the TV Everywhere apps now being offered by MVPD
networks like those listed on the Cox website you provided the link for.
So in sum, your Cox TVE "package" is different from what other Cox
subscribers may have as their TVE package, and what other MVPD subscribers
might have as TVE options. I'm astounded that Regards
Craig
I am astonished you think what you just wrote is true.
I have access to the same TVE sites as every other Cox Cable subscriber
anywhere they do business. There are no TVE packages - they do not exist.
Read what you quoted from the Cox website:
Watch live streaming TV in home with the Contour app or take it with you with
our many network TV apps and online access. Access to specific network's TV
app is free to customers who subscribe to that channel."
Contour is a Cox proprietary service - it has nothing to do with TV Everywhere.
It is a multichannel DVR that makes your content available to mobile devices in
your home. It ties with the Cox on demand library offered to Contour
subscribers.
Note that Contour ALSO links to what they call "specific network TV apps."
These are the TV Everywhere sites operated by the sources listed on the page
you provided the link for. And these are THE SAME TV Everywhere sites that are
accessed by Comcast subscribers, TWC subscribers, etc.
The ONLY caveat is that you must subscribe to the network with the companion
TVE site. There may be a few cases where a network is not available on every
Cox system; and many more cases where specific networks are "optional." This is
particularly true for regional sports networks, which are "regional" in nature.
For example, The Pac12 national network is optional in our market. If I add it
I would also have access to the PAC 12 TVE app.
Yesterday we bought an Insignia 32" flat panel TV at Best Buy for $159.
That's "impossible," Craig. The ATSC receiver alone must cost at least $200.
Nice try...
Moore's Law has a way of dealing with these issues. It has only been about
17-18 years since we argued about the cost of an ATSC receiver.
Cable cutters may be quite willing to "pay for" the right mix of channels
online. They simply don't want to be slavishly closed in a walled garden.
And those same cable cutters would probably sign up again if they could buy the
channels they want ala carte. They don't care about walled gardens - most of
the OTT services are walled gardens too. They DO care about the high price for
MVPD service, and that they are paying for a bunch of stuff they don't watch.
What's hard to understand? The Wikipedia article correctly points out that
TVE attempts to extend those garden walls to the Internet medium,
artificially placing constraints that don't exist on the neutral Internet.
The same constraints that did exist on legacy facilities-based broadcast
infrastrucures.
The Internet is full of artificial constraints Bert. The broadband pipe mayweed
be neutral, but it does not prevent ANYONE from operating a business that is
only accessible to those who pay for access to that service.
The Wall Street Journal and New York Times are available via the Internet...
For a price.
You have access to The Amazon Prime a TV service. I do not, as I am not an
Amazon Prime subscriber.
The FACT that many TV networks that are only available with a MVPD subscription
have chosen to create TV Everywhere sites, for those who pay a MVPD service for
that content, is a business decision, not an artificial constraint.
Regards
Craig
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