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TV Competition Nowhere: How the Cable Industry Is Colluding to Kill Online TV
Comcast Launches "TV Everywhere": Say Goodbye to Free Online Television
On Monday, public interest groups called on federal authorities to investigate a plan by the largest cable, satellite and phone companies that threatens the future of Web-based video. "TV Everywhere" gets programmers like TNT, TBS and CBS to keep their content offline unless a viewer also pays for TV through a traditional company like Comcast or AT&T (phone companies are starting to offer TV service, too).
TV Everywhere is designed to protect the current cable TV subscription model and block competition from upstart online video ventures like Vuze, Roku and Hulu. Cleverly marketed as a consumer-friendly product, TV Everywhere is really a desperate bid by old media giants to crush the emerging market for online TV. Cable giant Comcast just became the first company to launch TV Everywhere under the brand "Fancast Xfinity," and the other dominant cable, satellite and phone companies have announced plans to follow suit.
At its core, TV Everywhere is about ensuring consumers don't cancel their overpriced cable TV subscriptions that provide companies like Comcast with huge profits ($6.7 billion in 2008 alone.) But the current scheme also prevents competition between existing TV distributors. Instead of being offered to all Americans, including those living in Cox, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable regions, Fancast Xfinity is only available in Comcast regions. The other distributors plan to follow Comcast's lead, meaning that the incumbents will not compete with one another outside of their "traditional" regions.
Statements made by cable executives indicate that backroom deals are being cut without asking for permission by regulators --- the kind of permission that the nation's major newspapers recently sought before entering into discussions about a coordinated online "paywall." So TV Everywhere not only threatens the Net's potential to break open access and distribution of video content, it also appears to be an illegal collusion meant to block competition. Any way you slice it, it's bad for consumers. On Monday, public interest groups released a major report at the same time that they sent a letter to federal regulators requesting an antitrust investigation of TV Everywhere.
New online-only TV distributors and independent channels are excluded from TV Everywhere. The "principles" of the plan, which were published by Comcast and Time Warner (a content company distinct from Time Warner Cable), clearly state that TV Everywhere is meant only for cable operators, satellite companies and phone companies. By design, this plan would exclude new entrants and result in fewer choices and higher prices for consumers.
This deal threatens to stifle the freedom and innovation that are shaping our new media marketplace. The Internet is enabling people to watch video how and when they want it. The programs we watch on TV are increasingly available on your computer: on-demand through Hulu, Fancast and other streaming sites. And the online video you can see on YouTube, Miro, Fancast, Vimeo and other portals are available on televisions and portable devices. Stranded at the airport, sitting in a coffee shop, on vacation or at work, we can view programs from basically anywhere. And thanks to the Internet's open, neutral platform, anyone can create and share video, meaning we're no longer confined to the programs that media executives choose to offer.TV Everywhere represents a defining moment in the future of radio, television and other media. In one scenario, we break from history and achieve more consumer choice and an explosion of innovative content. We may need to pay for video online, or continue to watch advertisements, but we won't be forced to buy a traditional cable TV subscription that we don't want or need.
In another scenario, we allow the big cable, satellite and phone companies to use anticompetitive ventures like TV Everywhere to protect the status quo, and make the Internet more like cable television: where they, not you, pick and choose what you can watch, how and when you can watch it, and how much you pay for it.
The central tenet of TV Everywhere is that it can only exist through collusion among competitors. Our federal antitrust authorities and Congress must launch an immediate investigation. The Internet offers an unparalleled opportunity to democratize the TV screen now controlled by a handful of powerful media companies. This revolution is televised - and we should be able to view it online, too. Antitrust authorities should start enforcing antitrust laws and protect the public interest.
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23 Comments so far
Show AllI did not and will not read this article.
Throw the televisions away.
It was these machines that brought hatred into your houses.
These machines made people believe in the surreal.
These machines made people fat, lazy, and content.
Throw them on the white house lawn.
TV did not do that, the content didn't cause us to be lazy, we already were. television in itself is a marvel. Blaming TV for all our ills is a cop-out.
Gary
I'm not a technophobe, but television has been used against the minds of those that watch. It doesn't get all the blame, but has been used as a tool against reason.
U r what U eat.
There's no disputing it - TV has changed people, it has changed our politics and our society.
TV has had an enormous impact on us. It is a catalyst for change. We need a new Marshal McLuhan to truly understand its impact.
We're not going to eliminate TV. TV is very educational (I watch video of online University courses)and provides a us a virtual presence to almost any event.
We should worry and fight against people who want to control what TV we watch. Cablecos or the four networks shouldn't control what we watch.
Watching millions of channels of TV on the internet is free speech, is democracy is the embodiment of American political values. Given this freedom, these machines will have reduce the historical impact you mention.
It's not the delivery device, it's the content. Be a discriminating user. Make informed choices. Don't watch the garbage that's on 95% of the available channels.
Hey - what happened to all of the cool stuff that the cable companies said would be the result of competition? While we're being spun about health (s)care, the media giants are screwing us, too. I've gotten the hard sell from AT&T for their U-Verse, but it really doesn't save me any money. By the time they get you bundled, it's still over $100 a month. On top of that, with all of the internet providers starting to jack rates for bandwidth, the "advantages" aren't worth the extra dough. Books are still bargains, as are libraries, though I can't see the media price increases sparking a literacy boom.
Why does anyone want any of that nonsense. What drivel! I am right now in a hotel room, and there is not one, not one thing that has even the slightest intelligent, or interesting thing on. It's all stupid voyeuristic, "Girls Gone Wild-ism" There is no choice. The so-called news if fascism straight out of '1984', the "Entertainment" is dumbed down sensationalism. What is there on the airwaves? Who watches this crap? They work very hard to keep anything of value off the air. They know if there was something that people could really make use of, they would dump all that other garbage. God! What has happened to this country. The Enemies have it right. We are the "Great Satan" of the world. What parent would want to expose their children to the kind of refuse that the media corporations spread around.
I think your opinion of television programming is a bit too generous.
The media and telecommunications megaliths are taking their first steps in a march which will eventually lead to their dominance of the internet.
While the country obsesses over Tiger Woods, Bowl games and other worthless drivel those tasked with distracting us with their nutrient-free content have put the finishing touches on their propaganda.
Take a read of this pap, it's BRILLIANT in its deception:
FCC Moves Toward Net Neutrality Rules:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20091230/tc_pcworld/
fccmovestowardnetneutralityrules_1
In the above article the "Progress and Freedom Foundation" (PFF) is the hero, protecting the internet from the people who wish to destroy it.
So who is the PFF?
-AT&T
-CBS Corporation
-Comcast Corporation
-Cox Enterprises
-DIRECTV
-EMI Group
-Entertainment Software Association
-Intel Corporation
-GoDaddy.com, Inc.
-Google Inc.
-Microsoft Corporation
-National Cable & Telecommunications Association
-NBC Universal
-The News Corporation Limited
-Oracle Corporation
-Sony & BMG Music Entertainment, Inc.
-Time Warner Inc.
-Time Warner Cable
-T-Mobile
-USTelecom - The Broadband Association
-VeriSign, Inc.
-Verizon Communications
-Viacom Inc.
-Vivendi
-The Walt Disney Company
The Internet brought down the coup in Russia that sought to re-impose Soviet power. It showed us the demonstrations on the streets of Tehran. It provides a means for ordinary people to connect in ways that are unprecedented. It is freedom and democracy in action. It must be controlled, for it is a threat.
Hmmmm, free Hulu or expensive monthly bill?
Let me get back to you on that. I'll have to think about it.
I live in a small (3,700 pop) town in Central Massachusetts where we have no cable. Presently we get most Boston-area HDTV stations with a small antenna. I download movies and shows off Etorrents for free. I like this very much.
My elderly mother who has dementia is paying $62 a month for Comcast and watches about 3 stations. They just installed (unbeknownst to me) a digital cable box with a new remote that was incomprehensible to her. For a week she only watched one station because she couldn't change the channel! What crap!
from article's conclusion: "Antitrust authorities should start enforcing antitrust laws and protect the public interest."
Very true, however if recent decades have set any precedent, that is only a "normative prescription" (polisci jargon), and very unlikely.
What's the argument here, exactly? That we have some sort of right to 'free' TV, music, video, whatever because it's 'on the web?'
If the 'cable model' is so awful, why aren't people dropping it in droves? Because most people don't care - they know that they'll pay a monthly fee and get 500 channels of total crap of which they might watch 5 regularly.
If ad-supported 'free' online TV earns a profit, it will remain. If it doesn't, it will go away. Same with TV Everywhere - if people don't buy it, it will disappear. If they do, then the people get what they asked for.
Nobody will ever stop anybody from watching as many stupid .30 YouTube vids of cute cats and people humiliating themselves as you want for 'free,' don't worry. BigMedia could give a shit.
Here's a fresh idea: stop worrying about where you'll get your 'free' TV from and start not giving a f**k about TV.
"If the 'cable model' is so awful, why aren't people dropping it in droves? "
I read recently that folks are dropping cable in large metro areas like LA where they can get dozens of HD channels on an antenna.
What if everyone just stopped watching?
Argh.
Enforce those anti-trust laws Mr. President!
I know a lot of people who are dropping or have dropped their cable to cut back and save money. They watch cable shows on DVD.
There's mostly but garbage on the tube, especially anymore.
I canceled my cable 2 years ago and I am so much happier without it.
I can watch all of my favorite movies and TV shows for FREE. Just search the internet and it is there. The quality is very good too.
I socialize more with friends to watch sporting events, especially NFL. I watch less MLB because it's too long and frankly, I'd rather be outdoors in the summer time.
I read more books now and online independent news sites like this.
Cable is so expensive and the fees are for advertising.
What TV? The pricks went off the air last June.
I shut off the cable TV and the phone line long ago and now use the internet for all information, phone(skype), and entertainment. We must fight corporate control of internet access and internet content. Access to the internet should be free to everyone, provided as an essential tool for modern life and open society. I could live without a police or fire department, but I could not work, communicate, or stay informed without an open internet.