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Can someone explain to me how it hurts the content owners to have more eyeballs watching their freely broadcasted, advertisement supported shows?
by aianus 12y ago
Can someone explain to me how it hurts the content owners to have more eyeballs watching their freely broadcasted, advertisement supported shows?
- davidgerard 12y agoHollywood logic: 1. Someone, somewhere, is interacting with something we might own a chunk of. 2. Therefore, IT'S OURS GIVE US ALL THE MONEY.
- wpietri 12y agoI don't think this should be downvoted. When you look at, for example, the Sonny Bono act, aka the Mickey Mouse Protection Act[1], it's obvious this is a significant Hollywood approach. Or consider this 1982 quote from the MPAA's head: "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." [2] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Valenti#Valenti_on_new_technologies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Valenti#Valenti_on_new_tec...
- tptacek 12y agoOne issue is subtle. Broadcast television appears to be free for any consumer with an antenna, but it really isn't. The tiny minority of consumers who watch antenna TV are subsidized by the overwhelming majority of consumers who pay to watch TV via DBS, cable, or IPTV. The revenue streams from retrans fees fund content development and acquisition. Further, both broadcasters and pay TV providers are unhappy with any streaming service that interferes with advertising, either by making it simple to skip ads or by making it harder for advertisers to value airtime.
- seliopou 12y agoI think the last part of your answer is the important one. Eyeballs don't matter if you can't count them.
- AnthonyMouse 12y agoWhy can't you count them?
- SoftwareMaven 12y agoIsn't that what the Nielsen Ratings[1] are all about? 1. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_ratings http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_ratings
- pbreit 12y agoBut with IP delivery the counting is perfect? And you even have better demographics.
- pravda 12y agoYou managed to get this totally wrong. Broadcast television is taxpayer-subsidized, because broadcasters are given free use of the airwaves.
- tptacek 12y agoYour point is mostly orthogonal to mine, so your comment would have been better without the first sentence. But there's an interesting thing to consider on this tangent: television station owners do not necessarily own the content they broadcast, but might instead license it from production companies and distributors. The terms of those licenses include time/space restrictions --- television stations probably cannot themselves simply stream all their broadcast content over the Internet, because it isn't theirs to give away.
- RexRollman 12y agoIt doesn't (and I think it was a mistake to do this) but the content owners do have the right to say who gets to transmit their material, or in this case, retransmits it. I know it is not a popular opinion on HN but that is how I see it. Hopefully, Aereo will find some way to continue.