[opendtv] Re: TV Programmers Put Subscriber Caps on Skinny Bundles | Media - Advertising Age

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2015 08:16:33 -0400

On Apr 16, 2015, at 10:23 PM, Manfredi, Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Let's not confuse OTA broadcast stations with TV network content, Craig. I
have said many, many, many, many times that the TV network content is now
available without needing that OTA broadcast station, over the Internet. And
that THEREFORE the OTA broadcasters need to carve out a new, Internet-related
role. No sooner had I said this, that Leslie Moonves came up with his new
plan (CBS All Access, where the local broadcasters play a part).

Then let's not get excited that you can view more than 50 channels via the
antenna you hardly use anymore.

At most, there are four or five of these channels - 8-10 since you get
duplicates from two markets - that you may watch frequently, and now you tell
us that you don't watch these because you can access the programs you want - on
demand - via the Internet.

Thank you for making my point!

One wonders why one has to repeat the same things over and over, with Craig.
Why one has to laboriously belabor the obvious. Craig, did you not inform us
that you are one of those luddites who continue to watch by appointment TV? I
think you said 90 percent of it by appointment? Well, there you are. That's
why the OTA signal is still needed. For luddites, or for the news or other
things that are best seen live, unless and until live is put online.

Twisting my words as usual.

The only appointment TV I watch is live sporting events, mostly football in the
fall.

I do not watch ANY network episodic series, live or VOD. I do watch a few
episodic shows on Netflix, which is VOD. The bulk of my TV "watching" is
background noise while I do their things, like sparring with you. Most of this
is Fox News, HGTV, Food Network, and an occasional show from Discovery and A&E.
I do not plan my schedule around any of this - i.e. "Must see appointment TV.

See above. You continue to confuse the two issues. The content is still very
much in demand, so the TV networks have nothing to worry about. But sure, the
OTA broadcasters need that new role, perhaps with the help of clever guys
like Moonves.

Moonves is not offering CBS affiliates anything new. The money they may get
from CBS All Access is chump change. The real money comes from retrans consent
agreements and the ads they insert in CBS programming. The only content that
affiliates have that generates profits is local news and a few syndicated shows
in late afternoon and prime access. The syndicated shows can go OTT as well,
and the news business is a shadow of what it once was. Like towns that had 2-3
newspapers, the likelihood of three TV stations in a market being able to
sustain profitable news operations is very low. What's worse, withInternet
technology, anyone can offer video coverage of local news, including
newspapers, radio stations, and citizen reporters.

Craig's List killed the prime source of revenue for local newspapers -
classified ads. Local TV stations don't have much they can offer, either OTA or
OTT.

Because the options you claim are available to me do not
interest me.

You are not the universe, Craig. The fact that the multiple new options don't
interest YOU does not mean they don't exist, and CERTAINLY does not mean that
they will never exist.

The fact that something exists does not mean it will be successful. We are
entering a phase of experimentation where some things will work and some will
fail. Some of the most successful new Internet businesses fundamentally changed
existing markets and caught the entrenched players off guard. E-books are a
good example.

But the TV content owners have been able to protect their monopoly, with help
from the politicians, and to date we have seen few fundamental changes thanks
to Internet streaming of TV content. The most profound change has been the
ability to access programming on demand, as discussed above. The other major
change is the ability to view content on new screens, both in the home and
while mobile.

Bottom line, the content owners are carefully managing this evolutionary change
and profiting from it.

There is for Craig, the loyal subject. You do *not* have options of MVPDs,
Craig, because you are not subscribed to all of them! And even if you were,
they would offer exactly the same content. Why? See above. The oligopoly is
created/enabled/fostered by that pipe, not the owners of the content.

What rubbish.

The pipes are just middlemen who buy the same stuff from the content oligopoly.
In a few cases like Amazon and Netflix, we are seeing new content owners, who
are leveraging old content from the entrenched players , even as they become
part of the content oligopoly by creating their own high value content.

Get real, Craig. First, you have no idea what ESPN is charging Sling. I
suppose it has to be "fair," but that $6+/sub/mo is for regular MVPDs, where
ESPN gets an inflated number of subscribers (I hope not to have to belabor
that obvious point too).

We have a good idea what each of those 20 channels is getting, as there is a
well established "market" for their content and MVPDs all pay similar rates.
There may be some additional conditions, like subscriber caps, but the reality
is that this is just another experiment, like CBS All Access.

Anyway, rather than Sling, I would be WAY better off with CBS All Access and
Netflix, for example. I would get infinitely more program variety, I would
get the channel I watch most, and I would pay significantly less per month.
Sling makes most sense for sports addicts.

Seriously?

You already said you don't need CBS All Access as you can already see these
shows via Hulu and CBS.com. Netflix may give you a wide range of older shows
from all of the network, but you seem reluctant to pay for anything. This only
leaves news, which is easy to access via multiple Internet sites.

Sounds like you are just hooked on CBS.

Regards
Craig

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