Here you go. When a corrupt FCC Chairman is in the pockets of three or four
special interests, and against the best interests of literally everyone else,
you expect just the sort of "deflecting blame" that we get from him. Here's the
issue:
"With a new focus on acquiring content that was previously relegated to pay TV
services, social media and tech giants like Facebook, Amazon and Google are
focusing more on disrupting traditional pay TV, ..."
Imagine that! Something might actually threaten the 40 year old walled garden
model. Got to make them the bad guys, right? We don't want net neutrality! It
might threaten walled gardens! Really, the problem is the web sites, not the
telecom monopoly services! That's the narrative we get from today's FCC.
“You have to be aware that this notion of cord-cutting is real,” Taplin said.
“These companies are coming for your business.”
As well they should, in a finally competitive environment. It's perfectly legit
for the NCTC to try to turn back the clock, but what kind of a government crook
would try so hard to do this for them?
"Taplin said operators can fight back in several ways, offering skinnier
programming bundles in response to competition and reliable, high-speed data
connections. He added that the traditional method of delivering and buying
programming also will change in the future."
He missed the most obvious choice: fight them on their own turf. Offer the same
kind of web site, compete outside your walled-in footprint. You already have
the new telecom business, so augment it with your own SVOD offerings. The
legacy MVPD business can soldier on, for all the old luddites.
Bert
----------------------------------------------------
http://www.tvtechnology.com/events/0025/taplin-facebook-google-amazon-are-coming-after-you/282745
Taplin: Facebook, Google, Amazon are ‘Coming After You’
As tech giants go after sports and other content rights, operators can fight
back, NCTC keynote speaker says
February 13, 2018
By Mike Farrell
SAN ANTONIO—With a new focus on acquiring content that was previously relegated
to pay TV services, social media and tech giants like Facebook, Amazon and
Google are focusing more on disrupting traditional pay TV, director of USC’s
Annenberg School of Media Innovation Lab and author Jonathan Taplin told an
audience at the opening keynote of the NCTC Winter Educational Conference.
Taplin, whose book “Move Fast and Break Things” traced the monopolization of
the internet by Google Facebook and Amazon, noted that while over the years
those three companies focused on other business segments, they are increasingly
honing in on the video business. Facebook’s $610 million bid for streaming
rights to Indian Cricket matches—it lost out to Fox—is just one example of how
serious the tech giants are becoming about video.
The largest corporations of the world—Google, Amazon and Facebook—are going to
be the new gatekeepers, Taplin said.
In addition to Cricket rights, Facebook has tried to incorporate its GUI into
set-top boxes as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s “Unlock the
Box” initiative back in 2016, which has since fizzled in the new administration
but could surface again. Taplin said giving Facebook access to set-tops cold
decimate pay TV’s local ad business.
“They’ll keep trying that,” Taplin said. “So, you’ve got to be careful.”
Adding to the pressure is that the next generation of TV viewers have grown up
with 100-Mbps broadband connections, creating their own media systems without
cable.
“You have to be aware that this notion of cord-cutting is real,” Taplin said.
“These companies are coming for your business.”
Taplin said operators can fight back in several ways, offering skinnier
programming bundles in response to competition and reliable, high-speed data
connections. He added that the traditional method of delivering and buying
programming also will change in the future.
The current ecosystem where distributors are forced to buy large bundles of
programming from content providers, even those shows that have little
viewership, has to change, he added.
“A lot of those channels don’t pass the ‘who cares’ test,” Taplin said. "You
have to stand up to the channels that nobody is watching.”
This story originally appeared on TVT's sister publication Multichannel News.
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