Cable vs Online vs Content Providers
As much as my gut reaction was to support Time Warner Cable in their fight to redistribute content on the iPad which they already distribute via cable, once again Senor Chang has stepped in with some food for thought:
We’re talking about CABLE who is EXTREMELY WORRIED about losing customers to the online ecosystem. They are NOT fighting for you, they are fighting for the chance to take over online distribution. This is just Phase 1.
TWC customers really have nothing to lose… it all the people who don’t have cable, who pay for their purchases via iTunes, Zune, Amazon and Netflix that will lose out.
If cable can prove that your slates and phones are equal to that of televisions, then cable can make the argument that they should be the sole distributors of this content, depending on what the contracts between them and the networks are.
The legal issues of distribution rights aside, which I believe the content providers have to fight for in order to maintain, this points to the specific issue I’m having with MLB.tv right now. Specifically, I’m not permitted to watch a Blue Jay game on my iPad because I’m in Toronto and the cable operators (Bell, Rogers, etc) have secured all the Canadian broadcast rights.
Of course, the cable operators are not providing Blue Jay games online. So my choice is to either pay for 500 cable stations I don’t want in order to play Jays games on a TV I don’t have, or find a way to circumvent outmoded licensing restrictions and just watch the damn games on my iPad.
Point being, if online blackouts are the end goal of Time Warner Cable, they can piss right off.
Lover of design, typography, photography, music and life. Critical of close mindedness and a lack of critical thinking.
