[opendtv] Re: Cox: Hard-wired cable users must soon switch to mini box | Gainesville.com
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 6 May 2016 01:05:03 +0000
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
certain other content owners, say Scripps with Food and HDTV,
or for that matter even ESPN or HBO, consider becoming
available over that Comcast OTT service? As well as on other
OTT sites that create appealing bundles?
First, HBO has no reason to hook up with Virtual MVPDs. They
can sell their bundle direct so they do not need to share the
subscriber fees as they do with the legacy MVPDs.
Craig, these obstacles you create almost never pan out. The fact is, HBO is
currently available as a legacy MVPD offering, as an Internet offering only
available to MVPD subscribers, *and* as a stand-alone OTT site. Does it sound
like a content owner that erects pointless, formulaic obstacles? Not to me.
Third, Comcast and NBC/Universal are already operating under a
consent agreement with the FCC; a condition of the merger.
That agreement ONLY applies to the legacy MVPD service. If Comcast decides to
open an OTT service, to compete with other MVPDs which will no doubt do
likewise, there's no way that the FCC would object.
First, Sling is a subsidiary of a MVPD service that already
operates with a national footprint.
All the MORE reason, not less reason, for the FCC to not object to other MVPDs
playing the same game. Remember: the idea that multiple OTT sites would compete
on the basis of an MVPD look-alike service, on the neutral Internet, is pretty
absurd. So they are in fact playing a different game, as OTT sites, just as
Sling TV does.
It remains to be seen how the FCC will define and regulate VMVPDs.
Then let's not pretend to know that imaginary obstacles exist. They don't. And
if you call these OTT competitors, rather than VMVPDs, it might just become
clearer.
Bert
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