Why Is Sling Getting a Free Pass?

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gconnery 12/5/2012 | 5:42:41 PM

re: Why Is Sling Getting a Free Pass?

I think media companies want a monthly fee, not a couple of bucks from the $30 purchase price for the iPad app.

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Jeff Baumgartner 12/5/2012 | 5:09:28 PM

re: Why Is Sling Getting a Free Pass?

The WSJ digs its teeth into the rights fight in this story dated 3/25 but  posted Thursday, and indications are that this new rights battle is going to be a long drawn-out fight.   TWC thinks its streaming iPad app is "well within our rights," viewing the iPad like another outlet in the home, and arguing that it's on the up and up because the signals are sent over its secure network and not over the open Internet.

Some programmers aren't so sure. HGTV is on the record that views iPad streaming rights as separate, and is something it hasn't granted TWC.  The paper says other content creators, like Viacom, hope to cleare up "any misunderstandings."

So the battle lines are being drawn.  If powerful MSOs are running into static on TV Everywhere rights, that can't bode well for OTT startups that don't have the same kind of muscle and checkbook size. They're going to have a hell of a time getting rights too. JB

 

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ycurrent 12/5/2012 | 5:09:25 PM

re: Why Is Sling Getting a Free Pass?

Will be interesting to see if this ends up being about licensing/rights or revenue.  Might be that a revenue share model, might tip the balance.  Don't think that Sling offers that, but it could be a carrot for MSOs to offer.

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Lrmooney 12/5/2012 | 5:09:24 PM

re: Why Is Sling Getting a Free Pass?

Remember when the issue for Sling wasn't the content rights but the bandwidth hogging, they were "freeloading"... did they do something so they dont suck up that much anymore? In a world of Netflix are they small in comparison? Oh wise techo leader shine some light

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Cooper10 12/5/2012 | 5:09:24 PM

re: Why Is Sling Getting a Free Pass?

The programming networks objections to "streaming" content are difficult to understand for any network (and that would be all of them) that has licensed content for distribution on U-Verse.  TWC is simply streaming content in IP format for display on devices in the home that require IP format, and "streaming" content in MPEG2 format for display on devices in the home that require MPEG2 format.

UVerse is an all IP network, and therefore "streaming" in IP to devices that require IP format (U-Verse STBs).  A reasonable question is how does TWC streaming an IP formatted stream differ from U-Verse streaming an IP formatted stream?  Also, a U-Verse customer can use an X Box game console as a "STB" with the U-Verse service - did U-Verse need to first get  rights to make their service available on an X Box, much the same as programmers are claiming additional rights must be secured to make their service available on a tablet?

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Jeff Baumgartner 12/5/2012 | 5:09:22 PM

re: Why Is Sling Getting a Free Pass?

Yeah, and I think that's still a technical concern for the cable guys since the upstream environment is still pretty thin.  Upstream channel bonding will help boost capacity there for that sort of thing, but I don't think Sling is what they have in mind in terms of apps they were hoping to utilize it for.  But some tier 2/3 MSOs have shown interest in the Sling approach for TVE, so some may be willing to look the other way a bit if it can get score them a near-term TVE offering.

But as  Sling goes, 256kbit/s is still the recommended upstream speed; whether that's enough to get a super quality experience on a PC or iPad  screen is the question. however, i was testing Sling on my Evo Shift this weekend over the Sprint 3G net, and it was passable if I needed to watch my TV in a pinch. JB

 

 

 

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