[opendtv] Re: Viewers File Suit Over Bundling
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 08:30:53 -0400
At 4:01 PM -0700 9/26/07, johnwillkie wrote:
Aside from my former operation of a broadcast tv station, broadcast tv has
cost me $0.00 in my lifetime. But, perhaps you are older, and your figure
is a bit higher. Maybe $0.01 or less?
Maybe two cents.
But that's all an advertiser supported medium is worth to me.
This is an evolutionary problem, as has been the reality for the
entire DTV transition. The broadcasters are not smart or visionary,
but they do wield a great deal of power. Power used to rebuild their
empire as the opportunity has presented itself.
The media conglomerates did not create the circumstances by which
they have been able to charge twice for their products. The cable
industry came up with the idea of subscriber fees as a way to help
compete with the well funded broadcast networks. This was possible
because they had a 1 to 1 relationship with subscribers and a billing
department to collect the fees. Over a decade they were able to
develop enough content to compete with the networks. Then the
broadcasters used their political clout to create the conditions to
regain their former dominance.
The 1992 Cable Re-regulation Act, together with the laissez faire
government attitude about acquisitions and mergers in the '90s,
created the fertile environment that gave birth to the conglomerates.
The broadcast networks were combined with the studios and used
retrans consent to build powerful new subscription networks. And then
they went on a buying spree, gobbling up most of the independent
cable network. In the process we would up with Time Warner,
Disney/ABC, GE/NBC/Universal, CBS/Viacom and Fox/Fox/Fox (broadcast,
studio, cable).
They then started milking the oligopoly, and have managed to shift
the burden of broadcast station compensation from from the networks
directly to cable and DBS subscribers.
The vehicle that has made this possible is the extended basic cable
bundle. IF you want the good stuff - which is increasingly only
available via extended basic and comparable DBS packages, you MUST
pay for everything in the bundle. As a result, the cost for the
average cable/DBS subscriber has more than doubled since 1992.
You are wrong John. These guys have a very storng case and they know
exactly who they are suing.
Regards
Craig
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