It happened today. Time Warner and Comcast had a press conference to announce that they’ve teamed up to protect their cable TV franchises by controlling what is delivered over the internet connections they deliver to your home, effectively keeping out any pesky competitors or disruptors.
“Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) announced today that it has partnered with Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK) to develop broad principles for the TV Everywhere model to guide the distribution of its television content online. The agreement between the companies will make it possible for Comcast customers to access programming from Turner Broadcasting’s award-winning entertainment networks free online and on demand. In addition, Comcast announced it will begin a national technical trial of its “On Demand Online” service in July carrying programming from Time Warner’s Turner networks TNT and TBS.“
For our take on this issue, read “Sorry. No Internet Video for You.” In a nutshell, the cable companies are making all sorts of moves (e.g., bandwidth caps; caching infrastructure at the cable head-end; so-called “authentication” schemes) in order to control internet video distribution over their cable internet connections. If you don’t think this will harm any competing providers or innovators — whether major network initiatives like Hulu or upstarts like Revision3 — then you’re not paying attention.
The only possible option to counter the dominant, monopolistic footprint Comcast and Time Warner enjoy and to keep the internet conduit from becoming a toll-road benefitting a few — and that those few are clearly capitalizing upon in a way sure to fail (think “authentication” won’t be hacked in a nanosecond?) — appears to be the Federal Communications Commission and Congress.