Sci/Tech Gatekeepers of Cable TV Try to Stop Intel

tom_mai78101

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WASHINGTON — As Intel tries something audacious — the creation of a virtual cable service that would sell a bundle of television channels to subscribers over the Internet — it is running up against a multibillion-dollar barricade.

That barricade is guarded by Time Warner Cable and other cable and satellite distributors, which are trying to make it difficult — if not impossible — for Intel to go through with its plan. The distributors are using a variety of methods to pressure the owners of cable channels, with whom they have lucrative long-term contracts, not to sign contracts with upstarts like Intel, that way preserving the status quo.

Intel, however, is undeterred, and its executives intend to begin its TV service by the end of the year. They are ready and willing to pay more than existing distributors do for channels. But to date the company has not announced any deals with channel owners.

To Intel, and to some analysts, the behavior by the existing distributors — in some cases giving financial incentives to friendly channel owners, in other cases including punitive measures in contracts — has an anticompetitive whiff. The antitrust division of the Justice Department is looking into the issue as part of a broad investigation into cable and satellite company practices, according to people contacted by the department, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. A department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Read more here.
 

FireCat

Oh Shi.. Don't wake the tiger!
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What are they afraid of? Well, a little competition "Never Hurts" ..
 

KMilz

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What are they afraid of? Well, a little competition "Never Hurts" ..

Oh, it will probably put a nifty dent in their operations, I'd guess. I really hate cable and the companies that provide it, so I'm all for someone trying to break through their bullshit.
 

KMilz

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It's more complicated than that. With this, anyone could go on air. The information passed over the medium would lose it's reliability.

Where do you get that info from? Is it in the article that I didn't take the time to read? 'Cuz I don't see anything about that in the excerpt. It looks like cable how it should be, where you can pick and choose and only pay for what you want at a reasonable rate.
 

Hatebreeder

So many apples
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Where do you get that info from? Is it in the article that I didn't the time to read? 'Cuz I don't see anything about that in the excerpt. It looks like cable how it should be, where you can pick and choose and only pay for what you want at a reasonable rate.
My bad, I thought Intel was distributing channels itself over the internet
 

Varine

And as the moon rises, we shall prepare for war
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That is exactly what they're doing. Only you pay for the channels you want; I want four.
 
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