[opendtv] Re: Valve's Newell: How PCs Will Take Over the Living Room

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:42:42 -0500

At 9:38 PM +0000 2/25/13, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
The MVPDs, Craig, not the congloms! Cord cutting is about MVPDs. Cord cutters are *not* bypassing the congloms. They are getting conglom content by alternate means that the congloms support. If the congloms "preferred" it the old away depending on MVPDs, they have shown they are capable of adapting. At least partially. 

Corrected version:
They are getting SOME content from the congloms by alternate means that the congloms support. But they are NOT getting the content that is the "bait" that causes the vast majority of Americans to subscribe to an MVPD.
The major reason that growth has been flat for the MVPDs is primarily the economy, not cord cutters.
Congratulations to sports fans, then, for subsidizing so much low-demand stuff. Not sure what point you're trying to make. It's hard to blame the MVPDs and the congloms for exploiting the most inelastic demand demographic, right?
You got this exactly backwards. It is the non sports fans who are subsidizing the sports fans.
They are exploiting the fact that the MVPD bundle is considered to be essential in the U.S., even if the typical consumer only watched 10 channels out of several hundred. Everyone pays, but the lions share of subscriber fees help pay for the rights to sports. This is not only true in the U.S. - it is also true for MVPD systems in Europe.
Remember OnDigital, the DTV broadcaster in Great Brittain that went bankrupt by paying too much for sports rights? 




 Likewise, ABC Does not use Flash, nor does NBC.
You're quite simply wrong. I tried viewing their full-length episodes after having uninstalled Flash, and it didn't work. Perhaps you were trying other parts of their sites. Same with tf1.fr, and I figured, no use trying a zillion other international sites. My bet is, you didn't properly disable Flash. Since you have spent so much time talking about this stuff without knowing, I'll assume that's what happened.
Let me rephrase this. ABC and NBC do not require Flash. They both work just fine on my Mac when Flash is un-installed. I suspect that the reason they did not work for you without Flash is directly related to the resources in your system. Both ABC and NBC suggest that you get their Apps if you want to watch their shows on a tablet. 




 For some strange reason you seem to hold onto this historic
 notion that Apple always bucks the use of industry standards.
For some reason, it seems Craig is the only person who hasn't figured this out. Apple always makes a big deal about pretending to support open standards. That's called "PR." Too often, it's standards no one else supports. And may never support. And as you acknowledge, it's a historic trend. So yes, if HTML5 succeeds, and it looks like it will, I fully expect Apple to quick jump to something else, to force their faithful back to iTunes. 

You are completely clueless here. Give it up.

Craig wrote:


 > Themselves. By completely missing the transformation of the CE
 > business thanks to the Internet.
Well, I might even accept that. My thinking has always been, repeated multiple times on here, that everyone gets thoroughly stupid when it comes to Internet TV. So you're saying, the CE companies, Apple, Roku, are not on the take. They are indeed that stupid. Could be. I have no inside information. BTW, they don't need to develop all new software from scratch. If I can load Firefox or Chrome on my PC, and use any search engine out there, a CE vendor should be able to offer something very similar without having to reinvent browsers, search engines, or protocols to access web sites and content. 

No Bert
I am talking about the traditional CE companies who are building these "stupid" smart TVs. Companies like Sony, Panasonic, LG, etc. Samsung is learning, but still has a long way to go.
Apple is clearly not on the take. They help the conglom make money via their video and music stores, but have made NO HEADWAY in getting the congloms to open up the market for content.
I'm not certain how Roku makes a profit, as they can't be making much on the devices. 

This interview with their president is revealing:

http://venturebeat.com/2012/03/03/roku-intervie/
The story suggests that they may get some revenue share, probably from partners like Amazon, and perhaps Netflix.
As for putting browsers on a TV, clearly you still don;t understand that the problem is the User Interface. You can't just sell a TV with a keyboard and a mouse. 

Regards
Craig

Regards
Craig


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