[opendtv] Re: Variety.com: Comcast Offers HBO Without Other Cable Channels in Bundle Aimed at Cord-Cutters and Cord-Nevers
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 00:41:01 +0000
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> All you need is a subscription to "the cord"service. That is what
> authentication is all about.
>
> Pay for the cord service, and you also get the Internet service.
> Clearly at some point you will just be able to pay for the equivalent
> "walled garden content" via a service that is delivered via the
> Internet ONLY.
Paying for a neutral "cord service" is totally different from paying for a
walled garden "cord service." When you pay Comcast or Verizon only for a
double-play package, Internet plus telephone, you are paying for that neutral
cord.
Then over that, Comcast does not prevent you from buying your TV from anyone
else. Certainly they can't prevent you from getting all of the FOTI content
already available, from the major broadcasters, from Hulu, from a host of
others, and they can't prevent you from buying Hulu Plus, Netflix, or in the
future, even from a stand-alone HBO service such as Bewkes was describing. And
more below:
> But you (actually not you Bert), will still be paying a MVPD for the same
> content and the ISP service - only some of the technology layers of the
> IP stack will have changed; you will not be able to buy the bundle from
> another MVPD in another market.
You don't know that. Here's an example that is legal even today, even if it
might not make economic *YET*.
I buy double-play from Verizon (FiOS), Internet plus telephone. Then I go to
Cox and subscribe to some TV tier. If Cox insists, they can come and lay a
cable to my house. If they don't insist, I ask them to please stay away. Having
the Cox subscription, I now get those Cox TV tiers over the Verizon Internet.
All perfectly legal, TODAY.
Tomorrow, when the MVPDs better understand what it means to live unwalled, they
will gladly offer portals to their content. Even if there are local
restrictions for some of the streams, that's hardly a problem.
HBO and ESPN are getting this, Craig. I'm not sure why you can't.
> Yes, they are trying to stem the tide of cord cutters. But they ARE NOT
> doing this by making exclusive content available to all for free.
This is silly. No one ever said that. But now that you mention it, you are
paying for the basic tier, right? For the privilege of having the local
broadcast stations. So in a sense, yes, Craig, as long as the major networks
have their FOTI web sites, some of that stuff will be free which you are paying
for today.
> Now you prefer to wait a few days and access the same FOTA content via
> an Internet VOD portal.
Is this another one of those things I have to repeat a million times? Hours,
Craig. Not days. Only Fox and ABC make it days. The others make the delay hours.
Bert
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