Originally Posted By: Nick R
It may eventually happen, but it's a long way off. And the reason? Broadcasters. They dictate where and how the major TV providers can provide content.
Well, broadcasters are the over-the-air networks, I'm going to assume you mean cable networks like Discovery, TNN, etc. TWC is big enough to dictate their terms too.
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In other words, TWC/Comcast/Cox/etc has to go to the broadcaster for say, Disney Channel, and request that they be licensed to deliver it via smartphone/tablet in places other than in the home for where the subscription is. They can either say yay, nay, or yay but you have to pay us xx% more per subscriber to do it.
... and the writers, actors, and music producers guilds that are involved in that content have to give approval as well. It's a wicked mess. For example, "Wonder years" had a dickens of a time getting into home video release because of music rights. They replaced legit 60's rock with dumb sound-alikes at times. The guilds are rightly afraid of "IP streaming" and got their fingers into it before it took off big.
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So the fact that it's just now starting up, don't blame your provider. Blame the broadcasters which have a chokehold on those providers and dictate when, where, and how it can be used.
Well, cable providers, networks, and studios are vertically integrated. Time Warner, Warner Brothers are one media empire while NBC/Comcast/Universal is another. Fox/ NewsCorp/ DirecTV. The big players trade amongst themselves at a price advantage. My state still has/had a couple pockets with independent cable providers, and they have a hard time negotiating for content.
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Same thing applies, by the way to programming. The reason that you can't pick a la carte? The broadcasters don't allow it. They want the provider to pay a lot for a package of channels. Why do you think there was such a delay for TWC to carry the NFL network? Because Time Warner wanted to put it as part of a sports package that was pay extra, so it wouldn't need to raise rates on regular customers who don't care about it.
But NFLN insisted they wouldn't provide it if they didn't include it in the normal Digital package. In the end, it was a comprimise and the NFLN ended up on digital, and Redzone on the Sports pass.
yup this goes on and on and on. It's why I don't have cable.
One could be an oddball and get a la carte with a (big) c-band satellite dish until extremely recently. You also get exclusive deals like NFL sunday ticket on DirecTV and "arrested development" only on Netflix. Speaking of, watch Netflix, Redbox, and Amazon streaming... They have future potential with strategic partnerships. They're just the right size to either get choked out of the party or leveraged into greatness.