Say Goodbye to Free Online Television !

[BunkerHill24]

Say Goodbye to Free Online Television – Comcast Launches ‘TV Everywhere’

By Josh Silver, FreePress

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.

http://mediachannel.org/blog/2010/01/say-goodbye-to-free-online-television-comcast-launches-tv-everywhere/

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Got a newsletter about this today. The corporations are looking to screw us every way they..

[bhikkhu]

2. Its hard to imagine still depending on tv...

I haven't watched since 2002, and don't even remember why I spent all that time before following pre-packaged semi-dramas and sock puppet news...paying for it is absurd to begin with.

[xiamiam]

7. I stopped watching tv a few months ago and get all news from the net

as well as documentaries...even movies. PBS is available online including frontline, nova...60 minutes as well. The culture of celebrity is offensive to me whether it be cute 20 somethings or tv pundits or politicians. Why are we even interested in the personal lives of these people? A few years ago, I was sick and confined to my bed and had all of the premium channels. It was necessary then for diversion from pain. It became addictive and filled my life with nonsense. I'm over it. Will never renew my cable subscription.

[X_Digger]

3. I work for another telco/tv provider doing TVE

I really don't see the problem.

There's nothing exclusive about the deals made with content providers- NBC/Universal is more than happy to write up a new contract for comcast to re-sell access to their content, the same as to hulu.com. Paramount will be happy to sell you access to their content, whether you're Joe's cable company, Vimeo, or what have you.

It's more access to the programming you already pay for, it doesn't strip access for anyone else.

[Better Today]

4. The article is very poorly written, imo. It has lots of warnings and scary

innuendo, but doesn't say at all how it would effect things like hulu, or msnbc online, or comedy central online.

I generally go straight to the horse's mouth, only exception is that Fox (not Fox news, just Fox) forces to Hulu it seems.

As far as you know, will this TVE keep me from being able to go to FOX to watch House, or CBS to watch NCIS, or MSNBC everynight to watch KO and RM, and of course Comedy Central to Watch SC and JS?

[SnakeEyes]

5. Agreed.

Just looks to me like the cable companies are getting into the digital content distribution business too.

[X_Digger]

8. Has no effect on Fox, etc.

As a matter of fact, it's a value add for situations like that. Because the fox website will allow you to log in and show that you're a subscriber of a cable provider, you'll get access to _more_ content, sooner. ie, as a subscriber, you'll get access to more episodes of House, or be able to watch it moments after it airs instead of the next day.

[Better Today]

10. I'm not a subscriber of anything. I have an overhead antenna.

That's why I go to the web to watch some MSNBC and Comedy Central, or if I miss an episode on FOX. I don't get regular NBC at all since they went digital, fortunately there wasn't anything left on regular NBC that I still watched anyway.

So as long as those sites remain open to the general public via the web with no charges, I'm cool. So as a free television watcher, will direct access to these programs that I watch now. . . granted it's a day later, but I still watch . . .will episodes still be available online free? Or are these cable companies finding some way to force them to take their programming out of the freely available realm?

[X_Digger]

12. Not that I know of..

.. the decision to change over to a pay only model would be up to the NBC's and FOX's of the world.

The cable companies aren't adding conditions to the agreements, they're actually having to do work and pay more to the content providers to get their subscribers access to the content providers' content.

[dkf]

6. I DVR on my computer and use the airvideo app to watch on my iPhone using 3g.

I love it. Can't wait to see what the apple tablet will look like

[Better Today]

11. I couldn't imagine being that commited to watching TV. If

I'm not home to watch, then I'll watch later or watch online the next day or so. I guess though that I'm down to watching essentially three network shows, two MSNBC, and two Comedy Central.

[whyverne]

9. The poor economy means less advertising dollars.

TV and it's providers will make up that deficit by charging you more.

For those of you who say they don't care about TV, the Internet will be next.

It's coming as sure as Spring.