
Two Networks Hint at Leaving the Airwaves - nlh
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/business/media/fox-hints-it-might-leave-the-airwaves.html
======
nlh
It's frustrating (and yet slightly satisfying) to read stuff like this.
Watching an outdated business model face the reality of the modern era and
sputter and spit in an attempt to keep its old revenue streams intact.

My first thought was "Why do they care? The ads are getting re-transmitted -
if anything, they should be happy about getting a wider audience!" but deeper
in the article is the key:

"The threat is specifically aimed at retransmission fees, which have become a
crucial second source of revenue for stations as ad losses mount."

The broadcast networks have managed to get lucky in that they've found an
alternative revenue stream to make up for their failing business model (ads).
The problem is that alternative revenue stream isn't a consumer-driven
product, it's a "forced" license fee. And now someone has figured out how to
get around that fee, so it's hurting the broadcast networks.

Honestly, the move to cable is a natural one and it probably makes sense.
Cable operators are willing to pay a per-subscriber fee to the networks, and
consumers (in their decisions to subscribe to cable tv) are willing to pay for
content. And as HBO / Showtime / etc. have shown, it _is_ possible to build a
business without advertising if your content is good enough.

~~~
ams6110
Cable itself is dying (or at least stagnating) as well. Overall new
subscriptions to cable/satellite are essentially zero [1]. To the extent
providers are getting new customers, they are mostly coming from a competitor.

People are less and less inclined to plan their schedules around broadcast
content. They want to watch what they choose, when it's convenient. Cable
doesn't really offer that any better than over-the-air broadcasting.

1:
[http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ZERO_TV?SITE=AP...](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ZERO_TV?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-07-19-15-26)

~~~
nlh
Totally agreed. TiVo and the like are a partial fix, but I know >0 people
recently who have totally nuked their cable subscriptions and gone 100%
Netflix/iTunes/torrents (the latter of which is worth a whole conversation in
and of itself). The only reason I even bother with a cable sub these days is
access to live news (MSNBC, etc.) and the increasingly minuscule amount of
content I can't get online.

Cable's days are numbered. It may be a big number since there a ways to go
before streaming adoption really picks up, but they are numbered nonetheless.

------
gojomo
This is a political gambit; the idea that "free over-the-air television" is
some massive public good still has power as the rationale for FCC airwave-
rationing and censorship.

But the content available through that coarse ad-subsidized broadcast model is
less impressive than ever, and the Fox and Univision TV frequencies would
probably provide more public benefit as 'super-wifi' open internetworking.

They knew what they were getting into... I say, let 'em crash.

~~~
_red
100%. However, socialized TV will never go away.

Politicians will gladly force TV subsidy, because its literally the platform
that gets them elected.

All of those useless PSA "Now you know..." Gov funded TV-spots are exactly
that: Mini handouts / free cash.

Meanwhile, mainstream news will get softer and softer on their political
benefactors.

------
dublinben
These broadcasters who don't want to be broadcasters are shooting themselves
in the foot with this move. If regional cable monopolies no longer have to
carry these channels for free, they'll do so for a hefty fee. Any benefit
these networks hope to gain from destroying Aereo will be clawed back by the
cable companies they're selling their souls to.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Must-carry>

------
betterunix
OK, let them stop broadcasting. Then let's take all the radio spectrum we use
for broadcast TV and repurpose it for unlicensed wireless networks. We were
going to do that with whitespace a while back.

------
Lightning
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5513545>

------
mayneack
Does Aereo stream advertisements as well as the program or do they store it
and let you fast forward? If they stream ads, shouldn't this work in the
networks' favor?

------
mjcohen
Now if Fox will leave cable and the net as well, that would be nice.

