William Mobley, founder of FreeCast and one of the pioneers of streaming video, has responded strongly to recent remarks by American Cable Association president Matt Polka that the FCC’s set top box proposal would devastate small pay-TV providers, putting as many as 200 MVPDs out of business. According to Mobley, a more likely scenario is that hundreds of small bandwidth providers will finally be able to start offering a variety of TV services, creating an influx rather than an exodus of TV providers.
“What’s ‘burdensome’ is all the current required middleware, all the equipment, all the infrastructure costs that yield little benefit. Devices are driving the growth in the entertainment space right now, so it’s more important than ever that the TV experience become mobile across traditional television sets and other connected devices: smartphones, tablets, streaming sticks, gaming systems, and more. Frankly it’s stupid to pay so much and be locked in to a system that doesn’t support that. The FCC’s proposal allows these companies to utilize existing bandwidth and reach consumers on all of their devices. Every day, we talk to small telcos and cable providers about doing exactly that. You can look at Animal Planet, Bloomberg, any number of shopping channels, all of which are delivered on the web via HLS with no problem. What Mr. Polka seems to want is to turn back the clock, halt technological progress and essentially ignore the devices that consumers are turning to.” Mobley explained.
FreeCast is a media aggregation startup, which already delivers a complete television experience via the internet, offering subscriptions to cable networks, sports leagues, and more, on top of a wide selection of free and paid movies and TV episodes, available on-demand. The average consumer uses 3.4 streaming media devices, not including their televisions. This shift from traditionally-delivered pay-TV service to one provided via bandwidth will allow these companies to adopt a variable model for content delivery, rather than depending on the TV set alone. Greater third party set top box access will allow greater integration between web based video services like FreeCast’s and traditional linear channels, across all devices, benefiting both consumers and TV providers alike.
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