
Fox Joins ABC, NBC, CBS in Blocking Google TV Devices - shawndumas
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/11/11/fox-google-tv
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jameskilton
Moves like this are convincing me more and more that my decision to drop Cable
TV completely was the right decision.

I can't wait until this War Against the Consumer is over, but until it is I'll
do my part to refuse to support these antediluvian companies as best I can.

Don't get me wrong, I'll happily pay for content I want to watch. I was just
paying for content that I never even thought about watching, much less
enjoying, especially when much of what I want to watch (Daily Show, House,
Dexter, etc) are online for free legally or come from Netflix.

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mikeryan
I don't entirely understand this. The networks make their money by both
selling ads and through cable subscriber revenues. They've been pretty cool
about allowing content to be streamed on the web, and they do so with limited
ads and no subscriber revenue.

This has only worked because the users couldn't get that content on their big
screen (without jumping through some hoops).

You call this a "War Against The Consumer" because the networks don't want to
give away their product for free? I fail to see how the Networks are the bad
guy in this.

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jameskilton
I understand your point and don't disagree with you there. The problem is that
people are changing, the times are changing, and broadcast companies aren't. I
personally want more control over what I watch and when I watch it. My cable
tv subscription was about as useful to me as burning $60 / month. I watch very
little TV in general, and when I can get any TV show I want from Netflix for
$15 a month, or the shows that are on too late for me to watch are showing up
online, by the broadcast companies, for free, it's hard to say that cable is
still worth anything.

I'm also not a big sports guy, that seems to be the one niche that's really
keeping cable tv alive, but even that is moving more and more to be online
available via subscriptions and what not, for better and more choices, TONS
more choices.

The advent of things like Google TV should be a massive wake-up call to the
broadcast industry. The fact that the first thing major networks do is block
the device, even though it's no different to someone on a computer shows that
they're scared. They need to not follow the RIAA and fight to the death to
keep the old ways, they need to adapt to the times, figure out how to build a
new monetization strategy around internet content availability, and finally
move into the 21st century.

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mustpax
Original article: [http://www.gtvhub.com/2010/11/10/fox-com-now-blocking-
google...](http://www.gtvhub.com/2010/11/10/fox-com-now-blocking-google-tv-
devices/)

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jsulak
I must be missing something, but couldn't Google just have a device identify
itself as a normal browser in the user agent string of any http request it
makes?

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eitally
According to an article I read earlier today, it's not looking at browser user
agent, but the Flash player id, which is unique to Google TV.

~~~
jsulak
Interesting. Although that sort of raises the same question.

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tomjen3
That would have been a smart thing to do 10 years ago - now that isn't going
to stop anybody.

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glhaynes
Seems like it'll stop the majority of non-hacker Google TV buyers...

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tomjen3
How many is that?

And it will only stop them until some workaround is made - which will properly
not take that long.

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glhaynes
It's intended to be a mass market product so I'd expect most of them. Any way
around blocking is going to be used by at most a small minority of users.

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zach
Google now appears either laughably naïve in suggesting this would "just work"
business-wise, arrogant for thinking that they wouldn't get the same treatment
Boxee received from Hulu et al. for the same reason, or negligent for jerking
around everyone when they had to know this was going to happen. It looks bad,
even though, of course, it's ostensibly not their fault.

On the plus side, since their partners will probably have a lot of these left
after the holiday season, I think I know what I might get in my goodie bag if
I go to Google I/O next year!

~~~
wmf
I thought the HDMI input on Google TV is for watching real TV and the browser
is for watching Web-only video. [http://gigaom.com/video/google-tv-exec-cord-
cutting-is-not-h...](http://gigaom.com/video/google-tv-exec-cord-cutting-is-
not-happening/)

~~~
zach
I actually saw that video! I thought that was more of a convenient input
switcher if you only have one HDMI port rather than the new way Google is
transforming your TV experience. I at least expect the same stuff I can watch
on my PC, personally.

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Teef
As the content on these networks goes to crap and there inability to
provide/partner or work with any of the new platforms that put the consumer in
the driving seat is just going to expedite their demise. The loud SUCKING
sound are consumer running to a free(er) platform with better content.

