Now Sporting Leagues Think Sling Needs Their Permission To Innovate
from the permission-to-innovate dept
What is it about Sling Media that makes everyone else think they need to give it "permission" for the company to offer its place shifting offering? The company offers a little box that hooks up to your TV and lets you "place shift" your TV service to a computer or mobile device using their software. It's a clear case of fair use, where someone is making use of the content they have legal access to... and everyone's upset. First it was the mobile operators who for some reason wanted Sling to sign deals with them, when there was no reason to. If people had mobile data access and a compatible mobile device, that's all that was needed. Next, were the broadcasters. The TV industry is supposed investigating its options with Sling Media, while HBO has already indicated it might sue. Who else might be annoyed? How about sports leagues? Yup. That's right. All the various sports leagues are apparently concerned about what this could mean for them. The fear is that someone who legally has a subscription to watch games in NY, will hook it up to his TV and (horror of horrors!) be able to still watch the same game when he's traveling in California. Why this is a problem is not clear. The guy is still paying for the content, and Sling is actually making that content more valuable by making it so the guy can use it in more ways. The sports leagues should be thrilled about this, rather than worried.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Here we go again....
So Sling media makes a cool box that does cool things...that disrupts other people's business models.....booo hooo, sports leagues... you don't like it, make your own...or better yet... offer your broadcasts over the internet with some partner. Give the consumers what they want…and you will ultimately win. Don’t they realize why people buy these $200 boxes….cause they WANT the service.
Smart organizations realize when a new technology comes along that disrupts your model, you have 2 choices...innovate...or hang on to your model....and pass away into irrelevance. Suing only prolongs your company’s demise
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what is the difference between this and a vcr?
seriously quit stifling new technology... all you wind up doing is making people even more willing to piriate your stuff when you act like this
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One Possible Problem
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rationing access
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Re: rationing access
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Re: One Possible Problem
they are not losing any money....
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Re: Re: One Possible Problem
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Re:
Well, first off, this is a whole different issue. The concept that media blackouts actually drive more people to games is fundamentally ridiculous.
Second, since Slingmedia only lets a single user watch a program, it's not like very many people would be unable to watch the blacked out offering.
Plus, getting a friend with a Sling elsewhere to get it set up so you can watch the game seems like a pretty involved process that it seems unlikely more than a few people would do.
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A lot of this can be done already
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In other news, Mirror manufacturers...
More coverage on this breaking (HA!) story as it unfolds...
;-)
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Re: Re:
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