Revenge of the Cable Guys
MAP and its allies have expressed alarm about “TV Everywhere,” the cable industry’s strategy to protect its flank by requiring a cable TV subscription to get video over the Internet. This will be a major bone of contention as the FCC considers Comcast’s proposed acquisition of NBC Universal. Business Week has a very well sourced report on how this scheme was hatched.
Revenge of the Cable Guys
If you think online TV will be free forever, think again. The cable companies have a plan to keep control-and stick you with the bill.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, a bunch of small companies in Silicon Valley thought the future of television was theirs. Soon, the thinking went, TV would be everywhere. Frequent fliers would tune in on laptops and vacationers on tablets from the beach. If so inclined, you’d be able to watch Glee on a cell phone in a tree house. The network suits and the cable guys just didn’t have the digital chops to make it happen. Fueled with venture money, tech companies with names like Boxee, Roku, and Sezmi pursued their dream of untethering viewers from their TV sets-and owning a piece of the advertising revenue.
As the big picture comes into focus though, it looks like the cable guys are playing the lead roles, using the $32 billion they pay content providers each year as leverage. The alphabet soup of newbies is still waiting in the wings for a moment that might never come.
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