Quote:
Originally Posted by OLD BOY
In my view, the Government should look closely at exclusivity contracts and ensure that the needs of the consumer are taken into account.
It is ridiculous that we have to pay multiple subscriptions and have numerous devices to ensure that we have all the content that we want.
I know that some on this forum seem happy with this situation, despite the fact that the current state of affairs is hitting them in the pocket as well, but we're not all made of money!
Virgin Media have the opportunity to rectify some of these issues by allowing multiple streaming services on their Tivo boxes, but so far have declined to do so. If this straight forward solution to achieve John Malone's stated goal of bringing maximum content to cable viewers from multiple providers cannot be achieved, surely there is an urgent need for the Government to step in and sort the problems of exclusivity and the existing situation of having to buy multiple devices just to access your required content.
If the Government won't step in, our only hope seems to be the EU, who seem less hesitant to tackle big business monopolies. Not that I'm a big fan of the EU!  |
But there aren't any monopolies to tackle.
Channel exclusivity is not a monopoly. All of the content on the channel must be either produced by the network who owns it, which is fair play, or bought from the content producers on the open market.
In fact, market differentiation is a sign of a good market, not the other way around. if everyone had all channels and content, there would be no need for competition and a monopoly would likely emerge, as we basically had with Sky in the football TV market until BT came along.
Also, there is no such thing as "required content". Pay TV is a luxury item, outside of the PSB there is no right, nor requirement for customers to have all content from a single source. If you want the content, you have the ability to buy it. The fact that it isn't from one box is frankly irrelevant.