[mythtv-users] The Death of MythTV in the US?

[Brett Kosinski]

>  Anyone know why the cable companies even care? What does time warner care if
>  you have a copy of an HBO TV Show? NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, etc don't seem to
>  care, cause if they did, I'm sure they would have ranted enough to have some
>  type of encryption created with the digital OTA broadcasts and then have
>  only certified TV's able to decrypt those stations.

Well, never forget that these cable companies are, more likely than
not, part of large corporate conglomerates that also include media
production arms.  As such, you can bet Time Warner Cable is influenced
by the needs of the various Time Warner production arms, who generate
content that ends up broadcast on their network.

Meanwhile, cable companies have a business:  they broadcast content to
get eyeballs.  Those eyeballs then provide subscriber revenue (which
makes up a good majority of their income), as well as local
advertising dollars.  And if you don't have good content, that means
you might lose eyeballs to competitors who are, right now,
overbuilding your network and stealing your subs. And it's those same
advertising spots you'll likely use to advertise your own services to
fight overbuilders, which means good content is even more important.

So, make no mistake, it's most certainly in the interest of these
operators to protect the content as best they can.

Brett.