[opendtv] TVE definition
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2015 21:03:04 +0000
The important point is that the competition that forced legacy MVPDs to become
more flexible DID NOT come from other legacy MVPDs. It WAS NOT, for example,
the emergence of DBS or of Verizon FiOS, that forced this new flexibility. For
obvious reasons.
Those relatively new entrants were just more walled gardens, with local
appointments and truck rolls necessary to hook you up with their service, with
non-standard signals and rented receive equipment, with the full expectation
that each household only subscribes to one such TV service, and with ponderous
and annoying procedures required to quit the service. All technically
mandatory, pretty much, once upon a time, for this sort of large choice of TV
channels. Technology has moved on.
Craig wrote:
Comcast Xfinity is another example - they now promote Internet access to
live streams, but again this is the TV Everywhere sites available to any
subscriber.
Yes, and that is still the "Hail Mary" that I've been talking about, Craig. It
is extending garden walls artificially to the Internet medium. See that
description of walled garden I gave above? Well, the TVE service is totally
slaved to all those constraints above. They keep your Internet TV choices
linked tightly to the choices you have on that one legacy broadcast MPEG-2 TS,
or even analog, distribution network that you are connected to. As far as I'm
concerned, anything that fits that description is correctly classified as TVE.
Most markets have four or more choices now, but all of the competitors
offer similar bundles at similar prices
See above. Most markets realistically have only one or two choices anymore,
Craig. Because the medium is also your broadband link. And in any case, the
legacy service was designed to be the only one in your household, and a sticky
one at that.
There is no evidence to suggest that MVPD bundling is going to go away,
Is that a banality again, Craig? You really fail to grasp how the inflexible
bundles of years ago have been unraveling? You must be the only person left who
hasn't noticed. We've been over this 1000 times. Every service creates some
kind of "bundle." That is not the issue. The issue is choice people have in
buying the bundle they really want.
Creating new business models like those used by Netflix or Amazon
Prime is certainly possible, but these services are not replacements
for what the MVPDs are selling.
Balderdash, Craig. There's a good reason why HBO and ESPN are losing
subscribers still today. It's not because people are going back to reading
books and telling stories around the campfire. Netflix is most definitely a
replacement for HBO or other MVPD movie channels, as is Amazon Prime. The
offerings don't have to be IDENTICAL for a service to compete. Most people do
have some slight demand elasticity.
Bert
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