Comments on: WABC-TV, Cablevision Vie For Best Actor Award http://www.nyacknewsandviews.com/2010/03/saveabc7/ Community news and opinion for Nyack, NY Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:25:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Cliff Weathers http://www.nyacknewsandviews.com/2010/03/saveabc7/comment-page-1/#comment-882 Cliff Weathers Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:30:32 +0000 http://www.nyacknewsandviews.com/?p=7974#comment-882 You're going to see much more of these television blackouts over the next few years. However, the end result might end up helping the average consumer. As broadband speeds continue to increase, access prices drop, and compression technologies improve, you will see the emergence of IPTV (or TV over IP) and consumers will be able to make their choices of free and pay television services via the Internet. The cable/fiber-optics/satellite industries will no longer be content aggregators, but suppliers of network services. Services like Hulu, Bablegum, and Joost are only early models for the networks to come, where you can select your content supplier individually of the equipment that you have. Services like Netflix, with online delivery, will supply on-demand services once supplied only by cable/fiber-optic/satellite providers. So, the battle isn't about the $40 million for ABC, it is actually more about the cable industry and the entertainment industry fighting over the future of television. ABC feels that Cablevision is encroaching on next-generation delivery services. In the meantime, Cablevision is trying to protect the closed and proprietary nature of pay television services. This might all be for nothing. Last year, the FCC gave approval for the development of set-top boxes last year that utilize several live, scheduled, and on demand content providers and consumers can choose their services å la carte. The Internet and TV will soon be one in the same, and while this impasse might be an inconvenient hiccup, in the end I'm hopeful that this changing dynamic will be beneficial to all of us. In the meantime, I think its not a bad idea to invest $35 in a broadcast antennae. You’re going to see much more of these television blackouts over the next few years. However, the end result might end up helping the average consumer. As broadband speeds continue to increase, access prices drop, and compression technologies improve, you will see the emergence of IPTV (or TV over IP) and consumers will be able to make their choices of free and pay television services via the Internet. The cable/fiber-optics/satellite industries will no longer be content aggregators, but suppliers of network services.

Services like Hulu, Bablegum, and Joost are only early models for the networks to come, where you can select your content supplier individually of the equipment that you have. Services like Netflix, with online delivery, will supply on-demand services once supplied only by cable/fiber-optic/satellite providers.

So, the battle isn’t about the $40 million for ABC, it is actually more about the cable industry and the entertainment industry fighting over the future of television. ABC feels that Cablevision is encroaching on next-generation delivery services. In the meantime, Cablevision is trying to protect the closed and proprietary nature of pay television services.

This might all be for nothing. Last year, the FCC gave approval for the development of set-top boxes last year that utilize several live, scheduled, and on demand content providers and consumers can choose their services å la carte. The Internet and TV will soon be one in the same, and while this impasse might be an inconvenient hiccup, in the end I’m hopeful that this changing dynamic will be beneficial to all of us.

In the meantime, I think its not a bad idea to invest $35 in a broadcast antennae.

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