Last One In Shut The Door: How The MVPDs Are Going To Co-Opt Netflix and Other Streaming Services
Last week FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced his latest variation on the “Unlock The Box” proposal, pushing MVPDs to supply their customers with all manner of apps—Roku, iOS, Android and more. It was at some level (as the cable industry has argued) unnecessary, as the MVPDs are all moving in that direction anyway, but probably valuable in that it gave them an extra push to do something they’ve been dragging their feet on.The reason they’ve been dragging their feet is, however, the bigger issue: they are monopolies (occasionally duopolies) and as such do not have to react to consumer wants as quickly as companies in competitive marketplaces do.That’s a significant point to consider when looking at the latest MVPD-based contretemps, Netflix’s current campaign against bandwidth caps. It seems that many of the MVPDs are slowly introducing restrictions on the amount of bandwidth their users are allowed, charging them extra if they exceed the prescribed amount.This, as Netflix correctly points out, is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to put a crimp in the amount of time users spend watching Netflix and other streaming services. It’s also a great revenue driver for the MVPDs who make far more money on broadband than they do on pay-TV. (There are far fewer costs associated with broadband.)The other thread here is that the MVPDs are slowly but surely adding Netflix and other streaming services to their lineups—Comcast struck a deal with Netflix this summer, the details of which have yet to be announced, but viewers will soon be able to get Netflix through their X1 set top boxes, presumably avoiding any specter of bandwidth capping.And so the question becomes, is that the ultimate end game here, that the MVPDs pick up the most successful streaming services and incorporate them into their line-ups, allowing for some incremental changes (e.g. dropping all episodes of a show at once) but basically keeping the status quo?For those of you who know your sports history, it sounds a lot like what happened with the NBA and the old ABA. The upstart ABA, mostly known for it’s colorful red, white and blue basketballs, shook up the game with some new rules and some colorful players, They garnered a disproportional share of media coverage (the media loves all things new) and, to make a long story short, the more successful ABA teams were eventually absorbed into the NBA along with the three-point rule.It’s easy to see this happening in TV land: the major MVPDs bring Netflix, Amazon and Hulu into their line-ups, maybe Crackle, maybe YouTube. All other apps are relegated to Siberia, aka OTT-land, where their viewers are subject to increasingly strict bandwidth caps and obscurity. The gates, once open, are now closed and the status quo resumes.It’s a not unlikely scenario and one that would not adversely affect consumers, most of whom don’t have any real interest in watching the Zumba Network anyway. The real winners though would be the MVPDs, whose TV Everywhere based OTT system would prevail over the more open app-based system that’s being pushed by Apple and many of the networks. The constant struggle between content producers and content distributors would continue and access to mass audiences for television would be closed.It’s not a very democratic or fair solution but until the broadband monopoly issue is solved by either the FCC or by technological advances that make terrestrial broadband moot, then that’s exactly the solution we are most likely to see.
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.
