Time Warner Cable Inc. and other operators offer pay-TV networks to encourage media companies that agree to refrain from the massive promotion of its content through online platforms – such as Intel Corp. and Apple Inc., – According to Bloomberg, citing an anonymous source informed.
Incentives can be financial, such as cablemen can increase the amount of deductions. At the same time, cablemen may opt out of the content companies that do not accept their offer.
Currently, cable TV operators looking for ways to retain customers by providing access to view exclusive content, but in this they are serious competition increasingly expanding their influence online services.
Currently, Time Warner Cable has more than 300 contracts with producers kontnenta, and many of them may be amended to prohibit manufacturers to sell online paid content platform, said at a meeting with analysts at the National Association of Cable TV and Communications top Manager Glenn Britt.
«We may well find someone who will agree with our terms and conditions and will make a point to ban” – Britt said at a conference in Washington. – “I think they will agree with our proposal – because their business is not the sale of cakes».
Separate agreements provide that the companies selling the rights to broadcast its programs through the Web-platform should provide the same rights online Time Warner Cable, said Britt.
«Beer battle»
Now there is a “beer war” against the existing cable companies and telecom providers who have already received the rights to distribute TV programs and films on their networks.
against these mastodons of the market combined new technology companies – such as Intel, Apple and Google, who seek to conclude a contract, allowing them to distribute content via the Internet. These newcomers have developed over the years receivers and software, but have not yet been able to weaken the position of the cable and satellite operators, as the latter still have exclusive rights to display much of interest to the viewer content.
However, Charter Communications, the fourth-largest cable company in the U.S. market, is already looking for ways to preserve the status quo on the pay-TV market – reported by the chief financial manager Chris Winfrey.
«We saw a mutual (with content), the interest in maintaining the current status quo in the market, in the preservation of the status quo with access to program content,” – said Winfrey, refusing to go into details of the agreements.
«mutual interest»
Alex Dudley, a spokesman for Charter Communications in Stamford, Conn., also declined to comment on what Winfrey.
«Exclusivity and different preferences are extremely common in the entertainment industry,” – said in an e-mail to the press secretary of the New York-based Time Warner Cable. – “Absurd it would be to give up the exclusivity in the current competitive environment».
AT & T, the largest in the U.S. market, the telephone company, which owns the television network U-Verse, created on the basis of fiber-optic technology, is negotiating to reduce fees by content producers who sell their programs not only cable, but the Internet companies. This official said the company’s management Jeff Weber.
«Anticompetitive” action
«If our partners are going to continue to hang back and act the way they act now, with them will be quite a different matter,” – said Weber. – “Exclusive and neeksklyuziv – Things are quite different in their value. And, I think we’ll give them to understand ».
Mark Siegel, a spokesman for the Dallas company AT & T, declined to comment on the words of Weber.
According to a correspondent
Mediasat, U.S. Department of Justice is going to find out whether the cable companies violate antitrust laws or not, trying to restrict online companies the opportunity to purchase exclusive content. This was reported to competent sources in June of last year.
Actions companies working in the field of pay-TV, anti-competitive in nature, – said Gigi Sohn, president and co-owner of Public Knowledge, a Washington association of consumers, which is responsible for communications and technology.
«it undermines competition? Without any doubt – they are trying to ban the sale of content to its competitors “- said Zon. – “Is this a violation of antitrust laws? On this issue should reflect the Department of Justice ».
Satellite Company
Today’s problems
TV service providers on the internet like that, with nothing before experienced operators of satellite platforms, which also were once limited in their access to media content. The situation changed only in 1992, with the adoption of a special law by Congress – said Zon. She added that maybe now the government should step in and set the rules of the game in the market to ensure the equal rights of access to the content.
«The problem is as old as the world,” – said Zon. – “OTT providers are not protected by law, from the point of view of the law as they would not exist, and, accordingly, media companies may well be a refusal of their request for purchase of content».
U.S. Federal Trade Commission should examine the actions of pay-TV operators to check them for compliance with the rules of competition law, states in his report BTIG LLC analyst Rich Greenfield.
«Consumer gladly willing to use the services of a virtual cable networks or OTT providers” – Greenfield said in a telephone conversation. – “However, it is clear that the traditional pay-TV operators badly do not want this to happen».
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