Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Time Warner and Comcast have joined hands in order to regain control on some of the content that is slipping right out from under 'em. In the olden days, the only portal for catching content was the 'tube; today, a vast array of television shows are available gratis on the web, and that's downright frightening for pay-TV operators. Today, both firms are detailing TV Everywhere in the most general way possible, only telling us that paying Comcast subscribers will soon have access to "premium long-form content" via a web portal. TNT and TBS are the only networks specifically named thus far, but considering that both of those already offer their best programming online to everyone, we're not terribly impressed."

I'm thinking cable networks are going to start getting desperate. Hulu, Netflix, and DTV offer a much cheaper alternative than even basic cable. Unfortunately, giving subscribers what they can already get for free elsewhere will probably do little to help solve this problem.

"When it comes metered broadband, most consumers don’t understand how its implementation could affect what it costs them to download content. So I decided to compare how much, depending on which of the nation’s top ISPs’ metered bandwidth plans you choose, it would cost to rent the teen vampire flick “Twilight." And what did I find? That in almost all cases, the decision to download the movie will cost more than just the $3.99 rental fee — sometimes much more."

While I understand the sentiment, the conclusions are inherently flawed since it does not differentiate between fixed and variable costs. If you don't go over your allotment, there is zero extra cost involved in the download. This is similar to your cell phone plan, sure there is a variable cost per minute if you go over your allotment, but if you don't you really don't care what the variable cost is. If anything, I think metered broadband is a good idea as long as the included base bandwidth is high enough to cover the needs of 99.9% of customers. The remaining 0.1% is probably so far from the norm that it seems reasonable for them to pay extra for their much higher than average usage. But, the concept of metered bandwidth will probably create a huge amount of confusion and fear amongst customers, that it may not be worth the effort, case in point, Time Warner just decided to back of on their attempts at metering service.

Scary. What about customers who use VOIP phone services? Or online gaming such as Xbox Live? Or download songs from iTunes? I see a lopsided profit-driven pricing model like the one that Ubergizmo is suggesting, in which 95% of users pay the regular flat rate fee, and the 5% of "heavy users" pay extra per GB. Of course Time Warner could just adjust the bandwidth "cap" depending on how much profit they need to make each month. Sounds like the ISP makes more money while the consumer gets screwed.