[opendtv] Re: MVPD Definition

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2015 01:21:54 +0000

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

But this does matter to the consumer. There is nothing ubiquitous
about competition through "your pipe" today. I cannot buy the
content I want, that I am currently getting from my MVPD bundle.

Used to be, if you wanted a movie channel you had to buy HBO. Used to be, the
only game in town to getting HBO was a local monopoly. Now, anyone, with a
neutral broadband link, can go to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and any number of
other existing or new sites. Why do I need to belabor this?

I already explained that the hard core addict is at a disadvantage. That's
always the case. But even there, ESPN has lost millions of eyeballs already.

Great. But I cannot get many other sources of content I want from
Sling,

That's because you are unable to get past the walled garden model. So here you
are, thinking that Sling TV must define your new garden walls.

They don't want to cut a deal with Sony Play Station Vue.

Boo hoo. Whoever they cut new deals with, everyone in the US will be able to
access. ESPN is losing viewers, Craig, not gaining. If they were gaining, they
might be able to play "hard to get." Now, instead, they can't. They will be
maing deals. There is no need AT ALL for the govt to coerce anyone anymore.

What happened is that the cable monopolies were growing rapidly
with exclusive content that was causing broadcasters to lose a
huge chunk of their audience. And the cable monopoly proved that
they could get subscribers to pay for this content. So the
broadcasters got their buddies in Congress to cut them in on the
action in 1992.

And you missed it again!! If this local monopoly did not exist, the
broadcasters, and the cable channels, would not have this kind of leverage,
Craig. The simple fact is, lemmings all over latched onto the monopolistic
umbilical, without appreciating the ramifications, *and* insisted that the
local broadcast channels be on that monopolistic pipe too.

That being the case, the broadcast stations (and congloms) have *every right*
to demand their pound of flesh.

Now, at last, with a neutral Internet, that dynamic is changing. The lemmings
are rethinking their dependence on the monopolistic pipe, and these same
lemmings have made it abundantly clear to the FCC that they want the broadband
pipe to be neutral. They do not want to reinvent the old way.

Bert



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