[opendtv] Re: TV Technology: Charter Pulls Tribune Stations from Spectrum, Affecting Nearly Six Million Subscribers
- From: "Craig Birkmaier" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "brewmastercraig" for DMARC)
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2019 09:16:31 -0500
On Jan 3, 2019, at 9:02 PM, Manfredi (US), Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
More reasons to cut the cord.
"We don't think it's fair that they (Tribune Broadcasting) are demanding huge
fee increases, especially since their programming is provided free with a TV
antenna, and much of it is available for free on the internet." Charter said
in a statement.
Yeah, but boo-hoo, right?
WRONG. Charter is absolutely right. Retransmission Consent was a huge mistake.
Instead of CHARGING broadcasters for the public resource they are using, the
politicians gave broadcasters the ability to charge the MVPDs for their content
via the pipes the public was using.
The Law of Unintended Consequences!
I didn't think it was "fair" for our cable company to continue raising its
fees for basic cable either, when they weren't even carrying as many channels
as I could reach for free OTA. Which is why they couldn't sucker me in. That
whining is not very convincing.
What bulls**t...
At the time the 1992 Cable Re-regulation act was passed most cable systems were
offering about 35 channels. Even today Bert does not have access to 35
different broadcast programming streams; but Bert is thrilled that he can
access the same streams from two TV market. Go Figure.
With digital cable systems expanded the number of channels rapidly. Which is
the primary reason that the 1992 Cable Act failed to control the cost of MVPD
bundles. It was the “loophole” the cable systems and broadcast congloms used to
force the MVPDs to buy bundles of channels, propped up by the single OTA
network which they used to force the ransom payment.
All of these blackouts are political theater - a cover for both the MVPDs and
content owners to keep raising prices.
What Bert keeps missing is that a pipe can be neutral, but the services
delivered over that pipe are not. It’s triviality easy to “cut the cord” and
subscribe to a VMVPD service today. I’m doing it, but I am still threatened
with the same content blocking and price increases that were SOP for the old
facilities based MVPD service.
Bottom line, we now pay for TV, no matter how it is delivered.
There are no good guys here. The problem is the market distortion that cable
TV gatekeeper-monopolies introduced. Both the content owners, and the service
providers, took advantage, and the consumers always got the short end of the
stick. It is only strange that these two parties continue playing the same
decades-old game, even now that consumers are finally wising up. Wake up,
guys. People are figuring out they now have options. It took some time for
that to sink in, but it's happening at an accelerating pace. And you guys
keep raising your rates, as if nothing changed.
Wrong. They now have options in terms of pipes. The same business model has
been moved to the Internet. Nothing fundamental has changed. The only real
change is more ways to buy content, and a few reduced cost VMVPD bundles.
Americans are paying more than ever for their TV fixes.
And we wonder how a corrupt FCC is so stubbornly in favor of a non-neutral
Internet? Duh!! The Internet is demolishing the shenanigans he holds so dear.
Blatant corruption.
HA HA HA HA HA HA...
The Internet is not demolishing anything Bert. It just another technology
shift. Tee pipes ARE neutral. The services are anything but. And now “they” can
monitor everything we do...
Regards
Craig
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