[opendtv] Re: Linear streams
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2015 12:35:16 -0400
On Jul 13, 2015, at 7:13 PM, Manfredi, Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Regards
Craig
Sorry, but there are several major barriers to that happening.
Your "major barrier" is being disproved by Sling TV, by HBO Now, by CBS All
Access, by whatever Verizon is cooking up here, and on and on. TVE is simply
the Hail Mary I described multiple times already. Yes, the content owners
need to approve of whatever new distribution scheme. And they are, is the
main point. Bit by bit, they are.
Actually, all of the example you cite prove my point.
Sling is MVPD service delivering linear streams over the Internet. The same
streams Dish delivers via satellite. It may qualify as an OTT service, but they
are still delivering linear streams. But Sling also offers access to the TV
Everywhere sites for the channels in the bundle. Those sites are operated by
the content owners; the MVPDs may provide edge server co-location to support
the service, but they would need to license the programs to operate their own
OTT VOD service.
Two points: (1) These services can also be contracted, and (2) what do you
think they have to do to support TVE?? It does mean a new business model, and
this new business model is where consumers are heading.
Today, their primary connection with TVE is the verification servers; they may
also offer do-location of edge servers. And yes, they could contract with
Akamai or other CDNs.
(Around and around we go again.) Sure it is. We've been over this. If, say,
Comcast creates a TVE package, there's no reason to think this TVE package
will be the same as Cox's.
Neither Cox or Comcast create TVE packages. TVE services are created by what
you call the sources, like ESPN and HBO. When a viewer accesses a TVE site, the
MVPD authenticates its subscribers via the authentication server. The TVE bits
come from national or regional servers, and in some cases from edge servers
co-located with a broadband provider, which could be the zocalo MVPD.
They are not the same, in fact. The deals are made individually, by each
MVPD. So in effect, TVE ties a user's online TV choices to the choices he has
on that proprietary walled garden connection at home. No need. That's the old
way. Sling TV is more the new way.
Not an accurate description. I agree that a MVPD must make a deal with the
"source" to offer access to a TVE site; clearly they must operate an
authentication server to make it work. And yes, you must subscribe to the
linear channel from an MVPD to gain access to the companion TVE service. If you
do not subscribe to he linear HBO service you cannot access the HBO Go TVE
service.
The only significant difference between a Dish satellite subscription and a
Sling subscription is the size of the bundle and the limitation to only one
stream with Sling.
And the price.
Sling TV is available to anyone, Craig, not just to Dish customers.
Dish is available to anyone that can install a Dish with line of sight to the
satellites. You are correct that you do not have to ALSO subscribe to a Dish
DBS service. Instead you must subscribe to a broadband service. If you
subscribe to Sling you are buying a service from Dish.
Sling TV does not require you to have a dish antenna, and to be subscribed to
Dish as a DBS service. Sling TV does not restrict which broadband households
are allowed to join the service, based on a nonflexible, hard-to-change,
legacy MVPD subscription.
See above. But both the Dish DBS service and the Dish Sling service have a
national footprint. Some people may not be able to access the DBS service, just
as some people do not have access to a broadband service adequate to support
Sling.
In short, TVE makes Internet access to TV content every bit as "sticky" as it
was in the old MVPD days, when it required a truck roll to hook you up and
another truck roll to disconnect you, even though there is no reason to do
things this way on the Internet.
Duh.
The reason is that the content owners LIKE being part of the MVPD bundles Bert.
They are making a ton of money by doing so, and with TVE they are enhancing the
value of a subscription while enabling their content to be viewed on devices
that no longer need to be connected to the umbilical cord.
Sling is a Virtual MVPD service.
Not even close.
Correct, you are not even close to being right. It is a virtual MVPD service.
Look at the heading just above the story about Sling adding channels at
Multichannel News.
http://www.multichannel.com/articles-taging/virtual-mvpd
Oh, you mean the strictly neutral Internet feed? We all know that you oppose
net neutrality, Craig, but you have to get used to it. It's not the same
proprietary monopolistic sieve, no matter how hard you try to make it so.
It is still a monopolistic sieve Bert. It is my ONLY choice for an Unmetered
Internet service sufficient to stream Netflix in HD.
The difference is that I am using that wire to buy broadband; and I choose to
buy a TV bundle delivered over the same wire.
That's absurd, Craig. At any given time, the old way would give you maybe
150-200 channels of linear "choice" on a cable system. With the Internet,
you have access to many thousands of shows or movies, at that same given
time.
Correct. That is exactly what I said. Same content delivered in a different,
and far superior way.
Yes, you could attempt to record the linear shows for viewing later, and
TiVo made that as convenient as possible, but one TiVo box in your house is
hardly going to be credible competition against any number of web servers
out there. It's not even close. Get real.
Not the point Bert. You are the one who keeps going back to the notion that
technical limitations can dictate business models. You are correct that it was
not practical to stream huge libraries if TV shows to the public 20 years ago.
So the content owners started developing linear MVPD channels they could fill
with their library content, and some broadcasters added sub channels to do the
same.
Now we can access these libraries on demand and the hundreds of re-run channels
will give way to smaller MVPD bundles supplemented with mostly SVOD services,
and to a lesser extent, ad supported VOD services.
Regards
Craig
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