[mythtv-users] Comcast Equipment Update

[Simon Hobson]

Tom Bongiorno <tbjr at bongohut.com> wrote:

> Are you saying that my "contract" with Comcast says something about me paying for a license to view the content?

Bet it does in the small print - I'd be very very surprised if there wasn't wording in there to the effect of "you are not buying the content ..."

> Is Comcast being charged by the content creators for each device or each subscribers? I suspect the second is true. If so, outlet fees are completely bogus. There is effectively zero cost and infrastructure required to authorize way more devices than anyone could ever want. If there is a cost to them, their infrastructure is seriously flawed.

What they pay will depend on the agreement each cable company has reached with each content provider to it. Part of the process in reaching that agreement will have been either explicit statements or implicit assumptions about the numbers of viewers involved. Quite likely, it's going to involve a conversation along the lines of :
How many subscribers ?
What's the average STB/subscriber ratio ?
(possibly other questions about subscriber demographics)

OK, so based on X subscribers and Y STB/subscriber, that's Z (=X*Y) STBs - so how about you pay us $$/month to have our content ?

If Y goes up, then when the contract comes up for renegotiation then the $$ is likely to be increased. So while there won't be an explicit "per STB" charge, there will be an element of the costs negotiated which takes that into account.