[opendtv] Re: Shifting Online, Netflix Faces New Competition

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:35:12 -0400

At 5:05 PM -0500 9/29/10, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:


That IS my argument, for heaven's sake.

I was responding to Craig's notion that the Internet removes the middlemen!!



Maybe this is an issue of degree...

What you actually wrote, and are arguing about was:


 > The Internet is winning because of disintemediation; the ability to cut
 > out the middlemen. When producers decide to go direct to the consumer
 > we will FINALLY have a real market for content; a market where the
 > producer can charge as much as the market will bear.
Which would make it no different from what we have now with the middlemen, as far as consumers go.
And there's more. For secure distribution of such high value content, you are simply seeing other middlemen being created. Either it's Comcast with its new Internet scheme to its own subscribers, of Netflix and the other "over the top" services, or likely the ISPs themselves, eventually. This happens because the content owners want to keep control of their stuff AND because the ISPs need to manage the much greater bandwidth being requested in their nets.
Yes there are companies providing services to make the delivery of secure content via the Internet possible. And yes they get paid to do this. But they are NOT GATEKEPPERS, and they only charge a small fee relative to what the consumer pays.
The middlemen I am talking about - the MVPDs - are in cahoots with the content owners and have driven the price of content through the roof. The business model allows them to charge us for content we do not watch, and to collect billions of dollars in subscriber fees. 

This IS a HUGE difference!

Regards
Craig


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