[opendtv] Re: ScreenPlays Magazine: HBO’s OTT Move Sends Wake-Up Call to MVPD
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 02:39:26 +0000
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
>> you can no longer expect these almost identical, monopolistic, MVPD
>> tiers and bundles to move to the OTT sites.
>
> Why not?
Differentiation. OTT sites do not "benefit from" the local-monopoly boundaries
you see with legacy MVPDs. Hence, they compete with one another, everywhere.
Dish figured it out, when they created Sling TV, right? So did Netflix.
Duplicating precisely what MVPDs already offer would be a loser. To compete,
OTT sites have to give customers what customers really want, rather than coerce
customers with "take it or leave it" options.
> The extended basic bundle is the staple of Pay TV in the U.S., with
> at least 80% of homes.
Because they had no choice. And membership has been dropping, now that people
have a choice. We've been over this.
> Skipper (ESPN) has not moved beyond the extended basic bundle - the
> Dish Sling service is a slimmed down bundle with ESPN, but it is
> still a MVPD bundle,
We have been over this. Everything is a bundle, Craig, so merely calling
everything a "bundle" amounts to banality. Even OTA multiplexes are bundles.
The simple fact is, ESPN is being offered outside your "the bundle."
> And Piepler has been absolutely clear that he does not expect the
> new HBO OTT service to cannibalize the traditional MVPD services.
But this doesn't mean anything, right? Come now, Craig. Netflix and other OTT
sites cannibalized HBO's viewership and "the bundle" subscribers too, which
stole ESPN subsistence dollars. So these guys have to strike back. I even
posted an article some time ago that described precisely this scenario playing
out. Your reaction then was, "Pure speculation." Now that it's unfolding in
front of you, you repeat what you were saying before anything had happened.
> TVE is still in Beta Bert; it is growing and improving.
TVE, if it expects to survive, has to morph into the OTT model. I ask you
again, Craig. Can you subscribe to Comcast TVE? No? Why not? And if you could
subscribe to Comcast TVE, would they be able to lure you away from Cox TVE, if
they offered exactly the same bundles and tiers, at exactly the same price?
> Sling is what TVE will look like Bert. It is just OTT linear streams
> combined with the TVE sites. The bundle formula may be different,
Sling is an OTT site, as much as Netflix is. The bundle formula is different,
and it is NOT walled in, so it competes on an equal footing everywhere. If you
call that "the future of TVE," then that's fine with me. I call it OTT.
Bert
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