Insofar as the FCC's goal is to create a level playing field, where OVDs could compete effectively with facilities-based pay-TV providers, the disparate treatment of broadcast and digital rights will make the job much harder than simply mandating carriage negotiations.…
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How Apple and Amazon learned to share
The timing of the announcements of Apple's and Amazon's family sharing plans is not likely a coincidence. In fact, both companies have been working on the idea in parallel for several years, and the first public hints of the plans surfaced within a month of each other in early 2013.…
Read MoreFudging it on Aereo
To argue now that Cablevision's "first instance" retransmission licenses somehow conferred immunity from liability on its second-instance RS-DVR service that is not available to Aereo, as the deputy solicitor general tried to is, is to assume facts not in evidence.…
Read MoreJustice Department could hold key to Aereo outcome
The outcome of the Aereo case could turn on whether a majority of the justices can get comfortable distinguishing Aereo from Cablevision, allowing them to craft an opinion that finds Aereo to be illegal without disturbing the result of the Cablevision case.…
Read MoreMovies without borders
With the shift to streaming, the movie studios have attempted to sustain the old territorial exclusivity system by requiring the use of geo-blocking technology to restrict unlicensed access to their content.…
Read MoreNetflix is not a part of the internet
Netflix uses the internet as one of its platforms for delivering that content (the U.S. Postal Service is another), but moving bits around on the internet is merely a necessary step to engaging in its main business of getting content in front of consumers.…
Read MoreAmazon’s curious TV denial
Amazon is famous for not overly prioritizing delivering profits to investors, but there's no way that it would not lose hundreds of millions of dollars standing up a live, linear TV service.…
Read MoreDoes Verizon have the rights stuff?
Verizon's cloud-TV vision involves a lot of different content use-cases, crossing a lot of different rights silos.…
Read MoreChipping away at territorial content licensing
The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into the use of restrictive licenses by five major Hollywood studios in their dealings with pay-TV distributors.…
Read MoreDIY TV Everywhere starting to add up
TiVo reported that 76 percent of the streaming through TiVo Roamio involved recorded content, while only 11 percent involved live programming, but Dish said "most" streaming through Dish Anywhere involved live programming.…
Read MoreThe right to disrupt
Unlike in the music industry, digital technology has not yet changed how the money flows in the TV business or (for the most part) who gets it. If and when it does, the TV industry, too, will experience its moment of disruption.…
Read MoreCBS changes channels
The CBS broadcast network is starting to behave much more like its sister premium cable network, Showtime.…
Read MoreVerizon, Comcast hang up on joint venture plans
It's increasingly possible for consumers to cobble together the means to do much of what the Verizon-Comcast joint venture was said to be working on for themselves, using off-the-shelf hardware and software.…
Read MoreEven if Intel’s OnCue plan had succeeded it would have failed
Intel's mistake wasn't simply the scope of its ambitions but that OnCue is aimed at solving the wrong marketplace problem.…
Read MoreThe whole world is watching: Australia eyes an end to geo-blocking
Under a Parliamentary committee's recommendations, consumers in Australia would legally be able to access content that has not been licensed in that territory.…
Read MoreNetflix originals continue to confound
Unless and until Netflix gives the world some better way to gauge its success, however, others are likely to go on trying to fill the void as best they can.…
Read MoreApple and ad-skipping
Lots of TV viewers skip ads now; all that's needed is a DVR. So it's hard to see why that capability would be considered a "premium" feature.…
Read MoreIntel pits content against capex
What Intel is really offering the networks isn't simply more money from a new market entrant but the foundation of a whole new pricing paradigm for linear content rights.…
Read MoreHulu Agonistes
About the only immediately leveragable asset Hulu has apart from content rights is its embedded presence on a large number of connected devices, giving it a solid addressable base on which to build a distribution business.…
Read MorePodcast: Why the digital age needs an effective content licensing strategy
Publishers must now focus on a strategy for effectively licensing digital content. In the latest GigaOM Research Podcast, analyst Paul Sweeting discusses why we need a strategy and how it will impact publishers and others.…
Read MorePodcast: Why the digital age needs an effective content licensing strategy
Publishers must now focus on a strategy for effectively licensing digital content. In the latest GigaOM Research Podcast, analyst Paul Sweeting discusses why we need a strategy and how it will impact publishers and others.…
Read MoreMore questions than answers on Intel TV plans
The OTT video service being planned by Intel sure sounds like it meets the legal definition of a "multichannel video program distributor," which means it will likely have to comply with the terms of the Communications Act and be subject to regulation and oversight by the FCC.…
Read MoreWill HBO Go offer universal access to Universal movies?
Currently, HBO streams movies via HBO Go, but access remains restricted to authenticated subscribers to HBO via cable or satellite. If Netflix ends up redefining the standard for subscription access to movies in what used to be the pay-TV window, HBO may have no choice but to drop the authentication wall for HBO Go.…
Read MoreDisney’s first-mover advantage
Disney struck at the moment when landing a major studio deal in the pay-TV window probably has the greatest strategic value to Netflix. It's unlikely Netflix will be willing or able to make many more such deals with other studios, however.…
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