DOJ Investigating Internet Video Antitrust Issues Above and beyond Comcast/NBC impact on Hulu While there's a lot of pretense from a few reporters and consumer advocates to the contrary, Comcast and NBC Universal's $30 billion deal to merge will see approval with minimal meaningful conditions. According to the Wall Street Journal however, a nine-month investigation into the deal by the DOJ's antitrust division has been exploring whether Comcast and other cable companies have been trying to lock up distribution rights to video licensing in order to keep Internet video competition at bay: During its eight-month review of the roughly $13.75 billion deal, the agency's antitrust division has become interested in finding out whether Comcast and other cable and satellite giants are trying to lock up distribution rights to television programming on the Internet, which would block potential competition, according to people familiar with the matter. . . .The people familiar with the matter have suggested that the agency will continue to investigate whether cable operators are acting to thwart emerging competition from the Web. If so, they could file a suit under Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which targets anticompetitive behavior by dominant companies. Granted, it's very likely that nothing whatsoever comes from this inquiry. For its part, Comcast has insisted that their ownership of Hulu isn't anything to worry about because the company would only have a minority, non-controlling interest in Hulu.
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 | | *Cough*.... Of course they would tie it up. That's what businesses do, they try and create a monopoly. Monopoly is the best way to make money. | |
| |  DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA
 ·DSL EXTREME
| It's their content; it's their pipe I don't have a problem with entertainment companies giving themselves an advantage while punks like Google want to glom onto their original content. Warner and Universal/Comcast have seen this coming for decades and have built their business models accordingly. I think some kind of net neutrality for hardline broadband is in order, but Universal and NBC should be able to sell their content to whoever they choose. | |
|  |  BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | Re: It's their content; it's their pipe you have no clue to how the internet works. For their content to get to my PC the content travels over many pipes owned by MANY companies including google. | |
| | | DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA | Re: It's their content; it's their pipe I know exactly how the internet works. Everything connected to it has a unique IP address. That address is in packet headers which tell the routers where to send the packets.
I was talking about last mile pipes, Sparky. | |
| | | | flbas1
join:2010-02-03
Fort Lauderdale, FL Reviews:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: It's their content; it's their pipe sounds like you are wanting to go back to the 80's - where you would DIAL one service (AOL?) and then disconnect to DIAL a new service (CompuServe?). you controlled the data on the "last mile pipes" to go to your destination. but, the provider controlled the data. | |
| | | | | DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA | Re: It's their content; it's their pipe No. It has everything to do with property rights and foresight. Google is free to buy their own cable company. | |
| | | | | | flbas1
join:2010-02-03
Fort Lauderdale, FL Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: It's their content; it's their pipe they have YouTube. but, isn't there a chance that if the comcast/nbc merger goes thru, that somehow comcast users might magically be blocked from accessing youtube? it has accidentally been done in the past by comcast (remember the bittorrent throttling/resetting? illegal or not from the user or comcast, comcast WAS messing with the IP signal).
you might see it as giving comcast users rights to exclusive content (nbc), but it could also be seen as a way to stifle innovation (no internet tv because we supply you with the same copper technology as available in the '70s). | |
| | | | | | | DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA | Re: It's their content; it's their pipe This is more a matter of when You Tube gets content, not if. This is about video content being controlled by incumbent MSOs and content providers. | |
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| | | said by DavePR:I don't have a problem with entertainment companies giving themselves an advantage while punks like Google want to glom onto their original content. Warner and Universal/Comcast have seen this coming for decades and have built their business models accordingly. I think some kind of net neutrality for hardline broadband is in order, but Universal and NBC should be able to sell their content to whoever they choose. You want to have no NBC, NO olympics, NO USA, NO SCIFI, NO CNBC, NO MSNBC, NO Bravo, NO The Weather Channel,
NO A&E networks
# The Biography Channel
# Crime & Investigation Network
# History
# History en Español
# History International
# Lifetime
# Lifetime Movie Network
# Lifetime Real Women
# Military History Channel
If you don't have Comcast cable? and if you are not in area where you can get comcast TS?
What about not having comcast sports net? g4? e? Style? Golf Channel? Versus? | |
| | | DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA Reviews:
·DSL EXTREME
| Re: It's their content; it's their pipe Well I'm sure Time-Warner will be more than happy to trade some Bugs Bunny for some Universal content. "You want the Weather Channel? Give us HLN." Something like that. Warner films have always shown first on HBO; so what?
These upstarts expecting equal footing with the established content producers are free to try to outbid each other for the crumbs, or they can buy an NBC themselves. I'd go for Paramount. You get MTV in the bargain. | |
| | | | | | Re: It's their content; it's their pipe So I have DirecTV. So I'm screwed in your world (DTV has no content to trade, so they are sol?). | |
| | | | | DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA Reviews:
·DSL EXTREME
| Re: It's their content; it's their pipe DirecTV is primarily owned by Liberty, who owns a small piece of Time-Warner and the Braves, and other leverage worthy content.
"(2) the Liberty Starz group, which includes Liberty's interest in Starz Entertainment, (3) the Liberty Capital group, which includes all businesses, assets and liabilities not attributed to the Interactive group or the Entertainment group including our subsidiaries Starz Media, LLC, Atlanta National League Baseball Club, Inc. , and TruePosition, Inc. , Liberty's interest in SIRIUS XM Radio, and minority investments in Time Warner, Time Warner Cable, and Live Nation."
-Liberty Media home page | |
| | | | | | | said by viperlmw:So I have DirecTV. So I'm screwed in your world (DTV has no content to trade, so they are sol?). DTV has the NFL ticket, part of MLB network, the 101, gsn, I think 3 FSN's.
at least at 80% team owned CSN Chicago is safe from being pulled from Dtv. | |
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| | | Jaghar
join:2001-01-30
Painesville, OH | What about the future.
If the major networks control internet video sales and licensing, then they prevent the ability to develop a new market of internet only video "networks" (bigger, better than youtube...broadband only movies and series).
If the behemoth network buys each internet video business as it becomes successful, they can squash any attempt for an independent production company to create their own films for internet only sales through sites like Hulu. At the very least they can make it very hard.
Basically, they could, and probably are, making themselves the gatekeepers of all media.
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We will always be much more human than we wish to be. | |
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| | Comcast is playing it smart............ If Comcast is heading toward becoming a bit pump (dumb pipe), then they sure as hell had better try to own a piece of the content being delivered.
It's too risky and easy to get called out using caps as a deterrent. Comcast's buying NBC should relieve the pressures to limit customers demand for online video, and ultimately mitigating losses on the CTV side. | |
| | Reviews:
 ·Comcast
 ·voip.ms
·America Online
 ·Dish Network
| Re: Comcast is playing it smart............ said by JasonOD :
Comcast's buying NBC should relieve the pressures to limit customers demand for online video
Which in its self is the problem.... I understand a company will want to protect their income, but disprove any action to which will limit the consumers choices.
The best way to protect ones income is to remain competitive. Rather then limit consumers, why not offer the very thing which people are looking for?
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HP Pavilion a6750f (tweaked)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 * Ubuntu 10.04 64 * SuSe 11.2 64 * Mac OS Snow Leopard
"I could always tell you the truth, but would you believe?" | |
| | |  Jovi
join:2000-02-24
Mount Joy, PA | Re: Comcast is playing it smart............ said by OldschoolDSL:said by JasonOD :
Comcast's buying NBC should relieve the pressures to limit customers demand for online video
Which in its self is the problem.... I understand a company will want to protect their income, but disprove any action to which will limit the consumers choices. The best way to protect ones income is to remain competitive. Rather then limit consumers, why not offer the very thing which people are looking for? Thing is, people are seeking content that is currently free or less expensive than the cable/satellite/telco are offering now.
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"Some people have no respect for logic."  | |
| | | | Reviews:
·Comcast
·voip.ms
·America Online
·Dish Network
| Re: Comcast is playing it smart............ said by Jovi:said by OldschoolDSL:said by JasonOD :
Comcast's buying NBC should relieve the pressures to limit customers demand for online video
Which in its self is the problem.... I understand a company will want to protect their income, but disprove any action to which will limit the consumers choices. The best way to protect ones income is to remain competitive. Rather then limit consumers, why not offer the very thing which people are looking for? Thing is, people are seeking content that is currently free or less expensive than the cable/satellite/telco are offering now. If people can get it that ways... Comcast should re-work their business to adjust & match Hulu and others who do it.
The consumer should not suffer, just because they lack the will or know how.
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HP Pavilion a6750f (tweaked)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 * Ubuntu 10.04 64 * SuSe 11.2 64 * Mac OS Snow Leopard
"I could always tell you the truth, but would you believe?" | |
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| | | | That would be true if they were able to get the same content else where which these deals help prevent or limit all together.
However, if the control the content and those that want it have no choice to come to them to get it, then they can raise the price to a much higher price.
Another big issue with this is that it also allows the content owners to keep their prices higher. | |
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 newviewEx .. Ex .. ExactlyPremium
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD
kudos:1
·Vonage
·DIRECTV
| I wholeheatedly agree quote:
The people familiar with the matter have suggested that the agency will continue to investigate whether cable operators are acting to thwart emerging competition from the Web.
If any companies need investigating, it's the cable company monopolies, especially Comcast. I especially hope they also explore the local government franchise system . . . it's just ripe for exploitation, kickbacks and bribery.
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The Rules of Spam | |
|  Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4
1 edit |  DOJ should be investigating Hollywood & not cable companies
cable operators are acting to thwart emerging competition from the Web If the DOJ wants to spend time and money investigating the limitations on content availability on the internet, their efforts would be best served by investigating the big 5 content companies. It is they who limit access and keep costs sky high. | |
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