CBS Wants Dish To Make Their Ad-Skipping Hopper DVR Even Less Useful If They Want Streaming Video Rights
from the just-get-the-hell-out-of-the-way dept
As we recently noted, Dish has announced a new content distribution deal with CBS that's quite the double-edged sword. On one hand, Dish has agreed to cripple the ad-skipping feature on their Hopper DVR for ABC and Disney content for the first three days after a new episode airs. In exchange for Dish making their service less useful, ABC has agreed to drop their absurd lawsuit claiming that ad-skipping violates copyright. ABC has also agreed to loosen up restrictions on streaming content, allowing Dish to potentially offer an "over the top" Internet video streaming service sometime down the road.This has, of course, resulted in the usual press hype from reporters who don't understand how difficult broadcasters make getting these types of services off the ground (just ask Intel, Sony, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and countless startups). Bloomberg, for example, right after telling readers it's too early to speculate on price for such a service, immediately proceeds to speculate on price for such a service -- claiming a new Dish Internet TV service would only cost users between "$20 and $30 a month."
There's still a lot of things standing in Dish's way -- assuming Dish is competent enough to craft a decent service in the first place. We can't read the contract, so we have no idea what restrictions Disney, ABC and ESPN are going to layer on this new licensing agreement to cripple it to the point of uselessness (oh hi Hulu, didn't see you standing there). Dish also needs to sign on a lot more broadcasters to flesh out a service catalog, something that's not going to be easy. Quickly proving that point, CBS CEO Les Moonves stated at an investor conference he's going to expect Dish to cripple Hopper much more severely if Dish expects a similar deal from CBS:
"Mr. Moonves, speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference, said the arrangement is "not quite enough for us." Several broadcasters, including CBS, say increasing numbers of viewers are watching TV shows more than three days after they air, via DVRs or on-demand services. Mr. Moonves has been among the executives pushing for the industry to shift to a model where advertisers pay for seven days of viewing instead of three. He said CBS's carriage deal with Dish expires this year, and he expects to take a different approach than Disney in the negotiations with Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen. "We are going to want to do some different things," he said, noting that Disney has different assets and priorities."Who knows what kind of demands CBS is going to make, but it's pretty clear the demands will include making the Hopper DVR even less useful, while saddling any streaming agreement with just enough restrictions to prevent it from actually being disruptive. On one hand it could make sense for Dish to tell CBS to go to hell, as the broadcasters losing in court would set precedent that protects ad skipping from copyright claims. On the other hand, doing that would mean yet another over the top disruptive Internet TV service would die in the cradle thanks to myopic, terrified broadcasters.
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Filed Under: dvr, hopper, television
Companies: abc, cbs, dish, disney
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Who could have seen that coming?
Yeah, I'm sure Dish has got to be completely shocked by this, I mean, it's not like that sort of thing has ever happened before when dealing with parasites like those. /s
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Streaming
1. The stream comes with commercials.
2. The stream is a public radio stations that at times begs (err excuse me fund-raise).*
3. The stream is a public stations that also sells ads and begs (I am thinking of one in Toronto).
All of these are free to me. Most if not all of these stations are actual radio stations who just stream their broadcast. Many of them are owned by large corporations, yet they see fit to stream their broadcasts. And the TV stations don't.
There may be some cost differences, video verses just audio, but there would be provable viewers at the other end of that stream. Much more provable than anything Nielson could come up with.
So why the resistance? Is it just waiting game until they can figure out how to monetize (double dip) the streams?
* I not only give to my local public radio and TV stations, but I have given many hours of my time taking pledges during the begging. It would save me from having to listen to some of the begging if my local TV/radio station did not stream the feed live into the pledge room.
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So not only has Dish went back on the potential promise but both them and ABC, Disney, and CBS, have lost what ever potential they may have had that appealed to watching through this method.
Surely there is no better method to tee off your potential customers and loose in the process.
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Re:
Yea, they don't care about anyone who wants to watch their shows commercial free. If you don't watch the ads, then they don't get revenue from your viewership. The current rating they use to calculate ad rates is called C3, or commercial three. It's viewing, with commercials, for three days starting with the live airing. It specifically attempts to measure only those who did not skip the commercials.
There is a big misconception about TV that most people have: They think that THEY, the viewers, are the customers. They aren't. They're the product. Advertisers (the customer) pay the networks (the suppliers) for viewers (product). The networks use TV shows (the bait) to attract those viewers (again, the product).
You are to a TV network what a halibut is to a fisherman.
That said, Les is crazy if he thinks he will get advertisers to agree to a Live+7 rating. Considering the fight they had to get them to agree to C3.
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Be a real shame for CBS to screw that up.
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"CBS Wants Dish To Make Their Ad-Skipping Hopper DVR Even Less Useful If They Want Streaming Video Rights"
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Re: "CBS Wants Dish To Make Their Ad-Skipping Hopper DVR Even Less Useful If They Want Streaming Video Rights"
Amazon's streaming service is the oddball. It's Apple and Amazon only for tablets. So my Linux desktop is in a better position than my Android phone.
Of course content providers will offer the crappiest options available that you might not even want to bother with. Cross platform or not. They just don't get it.
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CBS
Cry Baby Station
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The kind of property where individuals still have rights.
Even creative content on physical media avoids most of the quagmires associated with streaming or broadcast. The grey market is alive and well when it comes to "TV as personal property". I regularly get items shipped from the UK when their US counterparts become too costly due to limited supply.
Running an HTPC makes those region 2 PAL recordings completely trouble free.
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Re: The kind of property where individuals still have rights.
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It certainly seems that they want it both ways -- that we are required to watch advertisements AND pay for the right to do so. Or not at all, and at the rate they are going, I'll be choosing that. Really, I think I could do without crime procedurals, slanted journalism and half-wit comedies that trade in insulting stereotypes.
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Dish still blocking ALL CBS
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Dish still blocking ALL CBS
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