We have survived the slow exodus of 1990s linear TV into today’s bushel of disappointing niche channels over-stuffed with adverts. We were not careful when we said yes to 500 channels. For most consumers, less than a dozen channels from our set top box are welcomed enough to be part of a “Pay TV” subscription. […]
cable TV
More and Better Video Bundles for Consumers
There are now are many popular streaming sites competing to attract subscribers for video content bundles and there are more coming. Vimeo, CBS all access, DirecTV, Google’s YouTube TV, HBO now, HULU, Netflix, Sling, Apple TV, Amazon Prime and Vue are all open for business. Viable competitors undermine the justification for regulations that were based […]
Evolving Mix of TV Programs and Distribution
Do you want to enjoy a real time major league baseball game? Maybe you should tune into Facebook? Would you prefer live NFL games? You might catch those on Amazon? Some of the most attractive weekend and prime TV programming appears to be moving elsewhere. Facebook and Amazon have bought rights to stream live professional […]
The Shakeout in Video Content to the Home
The first round of cord cutting was a distressing challenge for landline telecommunications firms. They had dominated voice and business communications for a century. A brief foray in Videotext did not prepare them for the popularity of its sequel – the Internet. The Internet arrived like a tortoise, but once commercialized in 1995, it soon […]
ACI in the Daily Caller: Set Top Box Hustle
The ongoing scuffle over launching competitive set top boxes has the FCC, the White House, and wannabe program packagers, like Google, lined up against the cable, satellite and telephone companies, also known as multichannel video programming distributors or MVPDs. The superficial version of the scuffle is whether consumers should have a competitive alternative to paying […]
ACI in Forbes: FCC Should Not Choose the Box
Like “Let’s Make a Deal,” the FCC is picking to “lock” consumers into having a box in order to have their cable TV services — all while the industry has been moving to apps and online services. Read our piece in Forbes and see why this “deal” is a bad one for consumers.
Content is King, Not the Device or the Platform
Consumers welcome a variety of competing electronic sources and delivery pathways for entertainment and news, but content dictates the winner. Consumers usually have multiple platforms (TV and cable box, PC and smartphone) for digital messaging, streaming video, and TV programs from over the air, mobile wireless, cable and satellite formats. Each of the streaming and […]
Cable TV and the Collateral Damage from Local Choice
Senators Thune and Rockefeller are suggesting a proposal to require local TV broadcasting channels, such ABC and CBS, be offered on an “à la carte” basis to cable TV viewers. The idea, referred to as Local Choice, would allow consumers the option to pick and pay only for the TV broadcast channels they want, instead of […]
Consumers Paying Broadcasters Twice
This op-ed, published in The Hill’s Congressional Blog, discusses the consumer costs from retransmission consent and spectrum shortages.
Broadcaster Fees Harming Cable TV and Wireless Consumers
In case you missed it, ACI’s released a study last month finding that broadcast TV stations are raising there retransmission consent fees at a rate of 46% per year, which is raising consumer cable TV prices. What is worse, however, is that these fees are becoming so lucrative that they may discourage TV broadcasters from relinquishing spectrum for repurposing to wireless […]