[opendtv] Re: TV Technology: Comcast's Sky Bid Could Lead to a Global OTT Service
- From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2018 07:30:56 -0400
On Mar 19, 2018, at 7:48 PM, Manfredi, Albert E <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
The shape of things to come.
Is the shape of things today. A handful of content owners control most of the
TV entertainment we watch. And they don’t want to let new members into their
club - i.e. the attempt to keep AT&T from getting a seat at the table...
"The case for Sky demands that Sky be viewed not as a satellite TV
distributor, but instead as a platform-agnostic content provider, one with
unique and proprietary access to high-end including the English Premier
League, Universal, Disney films and HBO."
Exactly. And then, with the new global Internet available, you can drop the
old legacy one-way broadcast satellite medium, moving beyond its constraints.
And this is the shape of things that have come before. The content congloms
have expanded their empire with each new evolution in distribution technology.
What is far more important, however, is how they continue to reap large
financial rewards from the legacy distribution platforms.
- Despite the massive loss of their audience, the broadcast TV networks are
hauling in billions each year from retransmission consent.
- Cable and satellite continue to generate massive profits, while the fledgling
OTT services are mostly losing money as the article points out:
"At the same time, he points out that OTT is still not very profitable on a
dollar margin basis and that satellite TV, despite its struggles, is far more
profitable over the lifetime of a subscriber."
This odd line of thought again. "Profitable" is a euphemism for "overpriced."
You mean like the monopoly utilities we must use, electricity, water, etc.?
This is the whole point Bert. Monopolies and oligopolies have the ability to
demand a premium for things we need and WANT. The Internet is not going to
change this; clearly the content congloms are moving to this new medium, and
will make even more money as they figure out how to maximize the revenues.
When new technologies make the old way overpriced, in part because it was
lacking in competition, the old ways dies off. It dies off precisely because
the profits were too high. Better alternatives emerge, people drop the old
way. On the other hand, a global OTT offering can bring in a humongous
audience. And too, broadband is not available to everyone yet, so a complete
change won't happen overnight.
Thanks for finally admitting that this is going to take time. Now if you will
just admit that “the new way” is going to be just as expensive as the old
way...or more.
Basic economics. Same phenomenon as major league ball players complaining to
management, when management claims their overly-substantial salaries can no
longer be supported. The anomaly was the status quo ante, not today's
realities. The supply side can't fool mother nature.
But monopolies are not subject to the same economic realities as competitive
industries. Thus the old adage:
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Regards
Craig
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