I guess you call call this “the just rewards,” so richly deserved for fleecing
the public for decades…
The irony is that it is the attempt by the congloms to cut out the MVPD
middlemen that is now the source of these concerns.
But let’s get real here. TV Everywhere really opened the flood gates,
especially for the Millennials, who much prefer piracy to paying for anything
on the Internet. There are many ways to scam the system.
- Using mom & dads cable log in to access TV Everywhere services
- Having one person subscribe to a MVPD, then sharing the log in credentials
among friends.
- Using stolen log in credential for online streaming services
The subject of this article is rather absurd on the face. It is VERY easy to
shut down people who are trying to abuse these free trial periods. And the
congloms appear to be comfortable with short term subscriptions - e.g.
subscriptions to CBS All Access peak during March Madness, then the
short-timers unsubscribe.
What this suggests is that the ultimate solution is just to move to Pay Per
View for everything…
WITHOUT THE ADS!
I guess Bert missed the part of the article where the representative of Fox
noted that they had been approached by about 50 planned streaming services.
The problem with the grocery store analogy is not that we do not have enough
stores. The problem is that we have an oligopoly that controls what gets to the
stores and how much the best quality, freshest content costs…
That is not changing much/
What is changing is that deep pocket companies like Netflix, Google, Amazon and
Apple are now buying a seat at the content oligopoly table.
Regards
Craig
On Jan 9, 2018, at 4:30 PM, Manfredi, Albert E <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Well, quite naturally, people steeped in the legacy MVPD model see this
phenomenon of many different "free trial periods" as the anomaly. In fact,
the anomaly was the previous monopoly of service.
Just go to your average food store. You will find any number of items on,
say, a two-for-one sale. Go to competing food store. Same thing, for
different items. This is normal. What's not normal was that people before
were compelled to shop only at the one food store, so to speak. That's the
anomaly. What's normal is to be able to go readily, to different food stores.
What's not normal is to have to wait for weeks, or more, and for inconvenient
house calls, before being allowed to shop at a different food store. And even
then, you have merely gone from one choice to one other, single choice. That
was the legacy MVPD model
Also what's not normal is that the current FCC Chairman hasn't figured this
out, or perhaps has figured it out, and is in bed with a tiny number of
special interests, against the interests of the vast majority. The current
Chairman is encouraging the abnormal, monopoly market, to become re-created
for Internet broadband service too. This is the "Internet freedom" he talks
about. He really needs to go.
Bert
------------------------------------------------
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/platforms/ces-2018-offer-surfing-ott-tv-services-growing-concern/170979
Jan 09, 2018 01:37 PM ET
CES 2018: ‘Offer Surfing’ of OTT TV Services a Growing Concern
Free promo periods enable consumers to hop from one virtual MVPD to another
By Jeff Baumgartner
Las Vegas -- The rise of virtual MVPDs are giving programmers new ways to
reach audiences, but they are also creating some concerns as their various
free trial periods enable consumers to quickly switch from one provider to
another.
That phenomenon, sometimes termed “offer surfing, is creating a “tension
there that needs to get solved over time,” Sherry Brennan, senior vice
president, distribution at Fox Networks, said here Monday (Jan. 8) at a
session titled The Disruption of Internet TV: Programming Everywhere.
She said those offers could condition consumers that they don’t need to pay
the freight for premium, high-end content.
The phenomenon isn’t entirely new, as it was also present when the market was
home only to traditional MVPDs that required longer-term contracts, but it
occurred in two-year increments, noted Mitch Weinraub, director of advanced
video products for Dish Network, a role that includes the development and
introduction of Dish’s AirTV OTT/OTA combo products for cord-cutters that is
capable of integrating Dish’s Sling TV service.
“But it’s happening more quickly now,” he acknowledged, noting that OTT TV
providers let new customers sign up for free for a few days and offer
services that can be cancelled at any time.
Weinraub doesn’t view that as a bad or overly troubling scenario.
“What we’re enabling is consumers to find a product that’s right for them…and
customers are going to find the right [service],” he said, adding that there
are ways to attract customers to OTT TV services without giving away too much.
Philo, the recently launched sports-free virtual MVPD, hasn’t seen that
phenomenon taking place in the early days of its service, Andrew McCollum,
Philo’s CEO, said, arguing that it’s up to the service provider to create a
service that won’t be exposed to high levels of churn.
“If you’re creating a great experience, people will want to stick around,”
McCollum said, while offering this contrarian view: “People don’t want to
keep switching…It’s work.”
Creating a simplified experience does work so long as it doesn’t likewise
involve removing important features and functionality, Weinraub said.
With Philo, “We tried to lead with the product, lead with the experience,”
McCollum said
Still, any issues with free previews for OTT-delivered TV services are
expected to become more pronounced as more and more players enter the fold,
and expand on a list that now includes packages and services from Philo,
Sling TV, DirecTV Now, CenturyLink Stream, YouTube TV, Hulu, fuboTV and
PlayStation Vue.
Brennan estimated that more than 50 companies with aspirations for standing
up national OTT TV services have reached out to Fox about distribution, some
more credible than others.
“The future is uncertain” with respect to TV, Saul J. Berman, chief
strategist, VP and partner at IBM Global Business Services, said earlier in
the panel. “A lot of the value is going to shift,” he added, noting that it
all ties back to a “digital reinvention” of the industry that will determine
who gets (and doesn’t get) the money.
And that trend is also helping out a growing group of SVOD services,
including Turner’s FilmStruck, that don’t focus on multichannel service, but
on new and catalog content in genres that are of specific interest to the
consumer that can be delivered OTT to a wide range of mobile and TV-connected
devices.
“The future for branded content owners is fantastic,” Soumya Sriraman,
president, North America of BritBox, an SVOD service focused on British
television, said. “You now know it’s possible to get content to the people
who want it.”
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