[mythtv-users] Court rules commercial-skipping in recordings covered under Fair Use

Gary Buhrmaster gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com
Thu Jul 25 00:57:58 UTC 2013


On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 12:33 AM, Gabe Rubin <gaberubin at gmail.com> wrote:
....
> Unless FOX moves away from broadcast, it cannot dictate the terms on which
> it is carried by cable or satellite providers (although FOX did threaten to
> do this over this specific issue).  However, FOX could play hardball with
> its other offerings, which are fairly popular and varied (FOX News, FX,
> etc).

Not exactly true.  There is a choice involved.  A local broadcaster
can invoke the "must carry" rule, where they require that it be
carried by the cable provider, and then there is no payment by
the cable company to the station (when this rule was made, it was
expected to be invoked by the smaller stations that would otherwise
lose (local) audience).  The other option is a negotiated settlement
(payment) by the provider to carry the station.  A cable company
may *not* just pick up the OTA signals and rebroadcast them(*).
So, yes, Fox does have some leverage.  However, it is (slightly)
mitigated by the threat that they will upset their viewers using
a particular provider (as happened in NYC during the CableVision
dispute, and with Directv).

Now, if *I* was a Fox executive who wanted to play hardball,
I would let my viewers watching Dish know that unless Dish
added revenue to their next contract, Fox would not be renewing
that contract, and those users should start planning to switch
to <provider_list>.  Plenty of warning.  And Dish *could* see
their customers vote with their eyeballs to <provider_list>.
It would be an epic battle of wills/balls.  It would be amusing
to watch (from a distance).

Gary

(*) For the moment, we will ignore the Aereo case.  Too
early to know where that goes (in court).


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