AT&T Unveils Usage-Based Pricing

As Todd Spangler wrote in Multichannel News [subscription required], “It might be the beginning of the end for the all-you-can-eat broadband buffet”, as AT&T announced usage-based pricing last week for its DSL and U-verse customers. According to Multichannel [this link free], Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Craig Moffett says that this move may provide “air cover” for large U.S. cable operators to do the same. As more users are watching “over-the-top” video services instead of just web-surfing on their broadband connections, cable systems financial models are eing stressed.

Comcast, Cox and Charter cable systems already have usage caps on their broadband services and Canada’s Rogers moved to consumption-based broadband pricing several years ago. Time Warner, however met with customer resistance when it experimented in 2009 with usage-based pricing on some of its systems.

So what does this all mean for the average couch potato? Well if you were expecting to cut your cable service from the SuperOptimal Platimum Tier to Basic Cable and watch all your shows on Hulu Plus, your broadband provider just might have something else in mind.

UPDATE: Netflix Cuts Data Use on Canada Streaming Service [and the techie details from BGR.]

Net Wit: Why Neutrality Matters

In an article in the September 6th issue of Time Magazine, Joel Stein makes the case against net neutrality by arguing that limited bandwidth needs to be allocated fairly. He says that is why your cell phone company “allows 911 calls through first, phone calls second, instant messages next and Web searches last.”

Allocating bandwidth is fine if you are an over-the-air broadcaster or cell phone company where there is limited (government licensed) spectrum. But let’s think about where most of us get our home internet service. Unless you are stealing it from your neighbor’s unencrypted router, chances are you are getting it from your cable company – which is also in the business of selling you pricey “silver” and “gold” packages of pay-tv channels.

What happens if you and a majority of the people in your franchise area begin watching True Blood, Dexter and Rescue Me by downloading them from Bit-Torrent? You and your neighbors cancel your high cost cable packages and opt for the basic package plus internet service. Watch your cable companies revenue decline while bandwidth usage goes up, making it harder for them to stream “on-demand” movies to those people who are still stupid enough to pay for them. How do you think that will make your cable company feel about net neutrality? Just Google “tiered service“.

Smaller Cable Nets Squeezed Out?

An interesting post from NewTeeVee on how smaller cable networks may be forced off systems as they devote more money and bandwidth to the bigfoot “must carry” networks such as those from Disney, NBCU, TimeWarner and Discovery. The post discusses how AT&T U-verse let its contract with Crown Media to lapse on September 1st.

Disney and NBCU are a double threat as they also own over-the-air stations that are must-carry as per FCC regulations.

H.264 vs VP8

MPEG LA fired another salvo in the H.264 vs VP8 war today by announcing that it will continue to offer a royalty-free license for their AVC/H.264 codec patents to sites that offer free video streams to consumers. Implied, but not specifically stated due to the legalese involved is that the license will be in perpetuity.

NewTeeVee suggests that this is in response to the growing acceptance of WebM, the open-source set of standards backed by Google and soon to supported by Firefox 4.

(Thanks to philiphodgetts.com.)

TV Should Create Its Own Online Store

On BNET, Catharine Taylor gives four good reasons why the TV networks should bypass iTunes and create their own online store. (The main point being that it would allow the nets to set the price of a show.)

READ THE COMPLETE POST HERE.

Bowl Numbers Up: Nets Last Hope ?

Nothing new here. The overnights merely confirm what the pundits have been saying: that DVR-proof live TV events will be the only savior of the once “big three” nets.

The game had the best fast overnight numbers since the 1987 game between the New York Giants and Denver Broncos.

OTA B’casters Won’t Waive Big Sticks

In comments filed with the FCC’s Broadband Task Force on January 27th, the NAB and the Association For Maximum Service Television (MSTV) said that a proposal from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the wireless trade industry association (CTIA) to free-up additional spectrum was unacceptable.

The proposal calls for over-the-air broadcasters to transition from today’s high power single transmitter DTV infrastructure to one based on multiple DTS single-frequency network transmitters. The NAB and  MSTV filing said the plan would create loss of service to viewers resulting from increased coverage gaps and interference.

READ THE ENTIRE BROADCAST ENGINEERING ARTICLE HERE

Comcast – Your 3D Source ?

Comcast SVP Derek Harrar wants you to know that Comcast, not DirecTV, will be the place to go for 3D TV content in 2010 according to this article from Multichannel News. (And this press release.) Harrar said that Comcast lead they way with Hannah Montana: The Movie in 2008 and followed-up with My Bloody Valentine, Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience and Coraline, all offered in the anaglyph 3D format.

Second 3-D Truck Underway

All Mobile Video has announced that it will build a 3-D HD remote truck utilizing Sony gear. The only other 3-D truck is NEP’s Supershooter 3D, which will be used to broadcast the Feb. 25th Harlem Globetrotters game on ESPN.

The All Mobile Video unit will incorporate 3D camera rigs from 3ality Digital, while NEP’s truck uses 3D HD camera rigs from PACE.

Mobile DTV – Too Little, Too Late?

Receiving a big send-off from manufacturers at this week’s CES, free mobile digital television could either be part of broadcast TV’s salvation, or a non-starter. With so many under-30’s used to watching on their computers or downloading to their portable devices, mobile DTV may only be a big hit in soccer mom’s minivans.

(Photo: Samsung Moment Android powered phone to be used in testing Mobile DTV in Baltimore and Washington D.C.)

3-D Networks

With announcements this week from ESPN, Discovery and Direct-TV, it looks like 2010 will usher in the era of 3-D TV telecasts. (At least until everyone has a 20 megabit per second internet connection.)

Start saving for that $2,000.00 $3,500.00 3-D set !

(Click on thumbnail for link to complete New York Times graphic.)

Related:
Cnet wrap-up.
Broadcasting & Cable: 3D Reality Sets In

Networks Could Ditch Free TV

… screams the headline in the “ink on paper” version of the story in today’s Newsday. (Page A34)

AP Business Writer Andrew Vanacore quotes Rupert Murdoch saying “(programming) can no longer be supported solely by advertising revenues.”

The article touches on how the networks are attempting to boost their revenues from retransmission fees and possibly by ditching their OTA affiliates and becoming dual revenue stream cable nets.

(Newsday’s on-line version carries the wire version headline. And the on-line versions are longer than the print version.)