[opendtv] Re: Cablevision to offer HBO Now streaming service - MarketWatch

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 00:39:37 +0000

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

>> Blocking access is exactly what all the other MVPD/ISPs have been
>> doing. Blocking access to HBO Now.
>
> That's absurd Bert.
>
> First, the service does not start until April - you can't block
> something that does not exist yet.

The service may not exist yet, sure, but the mere fact that HBO has to bend 
over backwards to convince these ISPs is proof enough. With Title II, it would 
be a much simpler matter. It would only be a matter of defining "fair and 
equitable" terms, in comparison to similar services like YouTube, Hulu, 
Netflix, Facebook, and so on.

> The onLy change is that this service does not require a
> subscription to a MVPD bundle as well.

The "only" change is that the entire model is different, Craig. It makes HBO 
equivalent to your lawn service web site, as far as the ISP is concerned.

Would it not seem plain flat wrong, if your ISP denied access to ABC Lawn 
Service, because it didn't want competition against DEF Lawn Service? That's 
exactly what they are doing, when they resist allowing access to HBO Now. I 
don't think ANYONE would accept such behavior from their ISP, for access to 
their favorite lawn service, and yet you seem to think it's perfectly okay for 
a movie site.

> Yes, there was a time when many systems only offered HBO as a
> premium add on to other video services. That has not been the
> case for more than a year

Months in most cases, not over a year. Exactly, Craig. HBO saw that the 
middleman was becoming an obstacle for their continued success, so they started 
taking action. These changes, from the slimmed down new MVPD bundle to the 
unwalled HBO option, are a direct result of competition **from the unwalled 
Internet**. No reason to think otherwise. As I said, you need only pay 
attention to what the owners of content are saying. Doesn't matter what 
different ideas the MVPDs or even the FCC might have. 

>> Tell me this: what do you think the words mean, when they say
>> "hold [HBO] back,"
>
> It means that like many other premium services - Showtime,

No, Craig. Blocking HBO Now is the same as blocking any other online business. 
It's proof of non-neutral treatment of web sites. You seem to need to couch 
everything in walled garden terms, where these are "premium services." Think 
outside that old box!

> Because they are not blocking anything.

Oh, okay, so provide evidence that Comcast, Cox, TWC, and others, are all 
allowing their broadband subscribers access to HBO Now. Blocking is blocking, 
Craig.

> Yes, HBO Now is targeted at Cord Cutters. But you are incorrect that
> these people represent lost HBO subscribers.

Irrelevant. HBO wants to compete in the Internet era, on their own terms, 
begging permission from no middleman they don't need, and most of the ISPs 
won't let them.

> It's not in YOUR interest Bert. The examples I cited are just
> another way to get Netflix on a TV, using a TiVo box rather

Again, you feel obliged to couch everything in walled garden terms. The "other 
options" you listed were merely to expand the 40 year old cable TV business 
model with one extra channel, when consumers are bailing out of that 
now-anachronistic model. HBO wants to be accessible to anyone with a standard 
box of their own, Craig.

> They are not blocking anything Bert. Title II has nothing to do with
> it.

Like all the other examples Craig's obstinate insistence, it becomes more and 
more absurd with every new post. Hey Craig. Should I be so unkind to list the 
other recent examples of this obtuse behavior?

> The MVPDs have the option of offering HBO Now to their broadband
> subscribers - if they don't these broadband subscribers cab buy
> HBO Now from Apple and the other OTT services

Wake up, Craig. You are merely listing obstacles in the way that HBO is trying 
to eliminate. HBO wants open Internet access, and they are the boss. Get it? 
Not Apple, not the ISPs, not anyone else. A neutral Internet will guarantee 
that HBO can peddle its wares any way it sees fit. Just like your lawn service. 
This is not rocket science, Craig.

Bert

 
 
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