

The Full-On Assault On Cable Is Underway - lotusleaf1987
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/29/time-to-disrupt-cable/

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jsz0
Cable & telcos video providers have a big time weapon in the form of transfer
caps. I suspect anyone who chooses to use IP video exclusively will be paying
significantly more for broadband over the next few years. The cable/telcos
will calculate how much revenue they're losing on video subscribers and
overlay that data on top of their transfer caps to break even. The upside is
it will probably still end up saving people money. Even if broadband prices
increase 20-30% being able to buy only the content you want to watch will be a
savings. It might also encourage more responsible TV watching. Who's going to
leave the TV on for 12-16 hour stretches if the meter is running the whole
time? That could be a very positive change for society.

~~~
lsc
>Cable & telcos video providers have a big time weapon in the form of transfer
caps.

And the people will scream bloody murder... in the computer infrastructure
industry, you raise your prices by not lowering them quite as quickly as you
could. raising prices? your customers will mutiny. I know I would.

This expectation that computers, bandwidth, etc... will get cheaper and
cheaper over time is strongly ingrained into the minds of consumers. push them
back, and they will scream but loud.

Isn't this the root of this whole net-neutrality thing? we are afraid that
telcos will raise prices (by raise prices, I mean either raise prices, or
provide degraded service at current prices) so we want the government to come
in and regulate that sort of thing? I mean, regardless of what you think of
net neutrality laws, you have to agree that it's a sign that consumers get
/very angry/ if you even suggest that bandwidth prices might go up.

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DotSauce
Can't wait for cable to be dead and gone. 5-8 minute advertising blocks drive
me bonkers. I have pretty much stopped watching.

Google TV looks amazing - [http://newteevee.com/2010/08/20/an-in-depth-look-
at-the-goog...](http://newteevee.com/2010/08/20/an-in-depth-look-at-the-
google-tv-interface/)

I think this will be a great leap forward for crowdsourced news, home-brewed
entertainment and video blogging.

~~~
trafficlight
I loath TV ads as well. I've had cable for the last few years with a DVR. For
the longest time, fast forwarding through ads was really nice. Then, a few
months ago, I picked up a Bluray player with Netflix streaming built-in.
Netflix streaming is just awesome. No ads to worry about, no fast forwarding,
I just watch my tv episode and I'm done.

Eventually, I started to get pissed off at the mere thought of fast forwarding
through commercials on the DVR. I just cancelled my cable last week because I
hadn't actually turned in on in over a month.

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nanairo
Not to be rude but it seems a bad article, with little content, less argument,
and awful framing.

First of all... the "siege" has already started, but it has not been very
successful so far. You need content first (which many cable providers have
special access to given their parent company often owns a lot of it). But also
a good interface. And most of all it has to be TOTALLY bug free. A crash or a
"format unknown" error may have been accepted on a computer, but people won't
accept it on their TV. When you watch TV you want it to be problem free: it's
your time to relax!

Second, cable companies are also ISP. Hence companies such as Google or
Netflix will still need to be nice to them or risk getting bad service. And if
they make some kind of agreement then for the cable is not different than it
is today: the cable is the medium to send the data, you are just adding an
additional layer.

Third: what would stop a cable company from "cutting the middle man" and
simply producing the same service on their own? You know, like they did with
TiVo. That's especially true given that their parent company are also the
content provider: instead of Google buying content from Disney and then
selling it to ABC, ABC may just get it from its own parent company (Disney)
directly!

Forth: Google, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix and Amazon have NOT teamed up. They
are all win that war, but they are far from allies. Which means the cable
companies can play divide and conquer.

Fifth: the cable companies are not exactly small. Those 5 may be tech giants,
but these are media giants. If it comes down to a fight for the cheapest
service, I am sure cable companies can spare a few pennies and lower their fat
profits.

And that's without even mentioning the poor framing, using war metaphors and
the D-day. Oh, and "it will be many years before everyone’s addiction to cable
gives way to something else. But it will." is not a prediction! We can all
play that game:

\- "it will be many years before everyone's addiction to oil gives way to
something else. But it will."

\- "it will be many years before we can live in another planet. But we will."

\- "it will be many years before tech pundits will gain quality, but they
will".

No, wait... maybe I went too far there. ;)

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skybrian
Does it bother anyone else that this story is illustrated with pictures from a
movie about the invasion of Normandy? What were they thinking?

~~~
defen
I thought it was in exceedingly poor taste and was going to make the same
comment.

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spinchange
I would like to see the same outcome as the author of this post, but I don't
think that's going to happen anytime soon. The television content business
(cable TV networks) and the television distribution business (cable system
operators) have a very mutually benefical relationship with regard to bundled
services. It's like the crux of the whole model. Steve Burke (COO of Comcast)
was refreshingly plain spoken about this at AllThingsD back in June. Google &
Apple will have to end-run the service providers TV offerings using the web
(probably delivered on the same pipe) to compete.

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samratjp
It's a pretty accurate picture, TCrunch, but there's also the problem of Live
TV - that's where Hulu could already join forces with the likes of Justin.tv
and really goes out on a full scale war. But then again, big media is gonna be
a tough sell on it and yay another format and DRM war.

There is definitely a new AD model at work - there will probably be location
based ADs for all we know. I mean, you still watch TV in your living room
only?

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pontifier
The more the others entrench themselves, the more foolish they will look when
I crush them with MY media distribution system.

