Week In Review: The FCC’s New Privacy Ruling Steals The MVPDs Thunder; Apple Creates A Unified Cross-Device TV Platform; AT&T To Buy Time Warner

1. The FCC’s New Privacy Ruling Steals The MVPDs Thunder

In a somewhat more watered-down version of its original proposal, the FCC is going to require broadband providers to get consumer’s permission before sharing things like browsing data with third-party vendors.

While consumer advocates are happy about this (more or less—many feel it does not go far enough) the MVPDs are not feeling it. Not because they they’ve built a business selling data to third parties, but because they feel that the worst culprits in this—Google and Amazon—are getting off scot free.

Why It Matters

Since broadband is a monopoly or duopoly in the US, the MVPDs were in a great position to gather and monetize data. So this is a definite blow to those plans, especially in that it cuts into the MVPDs ability to enable cross-platform marketing.

But it’s also the latest chapter of the ongoing war between the MVPDs and GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) over control of consumer data. This time, we think the MVPDs have a point. They may have a monopoly over broadband, but Google has a virtual monopoly over search—with an over 70% share, Bing, Yahoo and other competitors are far behind. What’s more, there’s much recent evidence that people use Amazon as their default commerce search engine—if you want to buy something, you search Amazon first. So the fact that none of the GAFA companies are regulated and can sell and monetize user data, does seem like slap in the face to the MVPDs, who want to know why it’s okay for Google to sell browsing history, when they can’t

What You Need To Do About It

Remember that there are ways around the new ruling. Consumers can be incentivized to share data by giving them something in return for the data—access to exclusive programming being the most logical. That reinforces the transactional nature of the deal—you provide me with your browsing data and I’ll give you access to some great shows you wouldn’t otherwise be able to watch. That may make it palatable for a large number of consumers.

On the other hand, keep your eyes on the number of people who actually do opt in and opt out—there’s something about the notion of letting others see your browsing history that we suspect will strike many consumers as overly intrusive.

2. Apple Creates A Unified Cross-Device TV Platform

Apple is launching Apple TV, a Siri-enabled app that gives users the ability to watch many of the TV shows they have access to on any device— iOS, desktop or Apple TV. The app includes voice commands, a “recently added” list for new episodes of series you’re watching along with a host of other groovy features.

One thing it doesn’t have yet though, is Netflix. That omission may make the app much less useful for the 60 million or so Netflix subscribers in the US

Why It Matters

As we’ve mentioned previously, the app-based ecosystem that Apple imagines is in need of some top-level infrastructure, a way to tie all those apps together in a way that makes the ecosystem as consumer-friendly as the competing MVPD TVE apps will be. The new TV app is an attempt to remedy that.

It’s far from a complete remedy however, as it only works within the confines of Apple’s walled garden. Roku users and Android users are left out. And since Apple TV is not the connected device market leader (they have somewhere between a 20% and 25% share) the new app provides fairly limited coverage.

What You Need To Do About It

We’d recommend playing nicely with Apple and making things easy for those viewers who rely on the Apple ecosystem. We’d recommend playing nicely with Roku, Chromecast, Samsung and Amazon Fire too, to get the remaining three-quarters of the market.

3. AT&T To Buy Time Warner

This is obviously the biggest news of the week, but we’re not going to pile on the speculation. Why? Because at this point, that’s all it is—speculation. As the deal progresses and we know more about specifics, we will offer our POV. But for now it’s too early to say anything that hasn’t already been said: it’s an important deal that will come under intense scrutiny. More to come…

TV[R]EV is written, curated and incubated by the BRaVe Ventures team. Find TV[R]EV on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter to stay up to date on the TV[R]EVOLUTION