Public Knowledge's President, Gigi Sohn, has an op-ed in C|Net News today on the FCC's digital media/broadcast flag powergrab (FCC is taking wrong turn on digital media). She points out a couple of the dumb things the FCC plans to do with their claimed power to regulate digital media. However, if the FCC gets away with the broadcast flag, imagine all the dumb ideas content providers will try to foist upon us.
Read on...
For example, Engadget notes that a company called MyDTV has gotten $7 million in financing to provide pop-up ads on television programming (Pop-ups coming to digital TV?). From the company's website:
A Mel Gibson fan is watching a news program. An on-screen message recommends the viewer watch "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," which will air on a PPV channel in one minute. The viewer may then choose to click on the alert to tune to the movie. The viewer is happy because he saw a recommendation to see his favorite actor and is willing to pay the $3.95 to watch the movie as a result.
or
Let's say a Jennifer Aniston fan is watching a news program. An on-screen promotion alerts that viewer that Jennifer will be interviewed on your channel in one minute. The viewer may click on the promotion to tune to the interview. The viewer is happy because he saw his favorite TV star, and your ratings improve as a result.
Just what we need. Pop-ups for television. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad idea, but to have it imposed by the gatekeeper distributer is a bad idea. I would be interested in such a service, if it were based on open standards and I could subscribe only to those notification services that I trusted, just as I subscribe to the RSS feeds I am interested in. Will the FCC allow such a system to be built on top of the broadcast flag? Unlikely, especially when the broadcasters undoubtedly complain and threaten to withold valuable content.
PVRblog reports on cable operators struggling to promote Video-on-Demand (VoD) in the face satellite TV's major PVR push (PVRs: satellite vs. cable). According to Television Week, "only 38 percent of cable subscribers are aware that they can get DVR service from their cable operators, compared with 78 percent of satellite customers" (Cablers Start a Fire Under VOD Plans). So what is the response from cable operators? Are they promoting their PVR services more? No, that would empower consumers too much. Instead cable operators are (in PVRblog's helpful summary):
I had to read the last sentence of the TV Week article twice. "'If we do our job [by providing VoD niche magazines] ..., people will think twice about leaving for satellite,' he [a regional VP with Mediacom] said." I originally thought the quote said "If we do our job ... people won't think twice about leaving for satellite."
Video on Demand is, apparently, the sort of innovation the FCC supports, as they are doing their best to cripple DVRs.