DirecTV’s Viacom Gambit

I suppose there’s something to be said for the fact that two days into DirecTV’s shutdown of 17 Viacom programming channels (26 if you count the HD feeds) no congressman, senator or FCC chairman has come forth demanding that DirecTV reinstate them to protect consumers’ “right” to watch SpongeBob SquarePants.

Yes, it’s another one of those dust-ups between studios and cable/satellite companies over the cost of carrying programming. Two weeks ago, DirecTV competitor Dish Network dropped AMC, IFC and WE TV. As with AMC and Dish, Viacom wants a bigger payment—in this case 30 percent more—from DirecTV to carry its channel line-up, which includes Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon. DirecTV, balked, wanting to keep its own prices down. Hence, as of yesterday, those channels are not available pending a resolution.

As I have said in the past, Washington should let both these disputes play out. For starters, despite some consumer complaints, demographics might be in DirecTV’s favor. True, Viacom has some popular channels with popular shows. But they all skew to younger age groups that are turning to their tablets and smartphones for viewing entertainment. At the same time, satellite TV service likely skews toward homeowners, a slightly older demographic. It could be that DirecTV’s research and the math shows dropping Viacom will not cost them too many subscribers.

This is the new reality of TV viewing. If you are willing to wait a few days, you can download most of Comedy Central’s latest episodes for free (although John Bergmayer at Public Knowledge reports that, in a move related to the DirecTV dispute, Comedy Central has pulled The Daily Show episodes from its site, although they are still available at Hulu).

What’s more, in a decision that should raise eyebrows all around, AMC said it will allow Dish subscribers to watch the season premiere of its hit series Breaking Bad online this Sunday, simultaneous with the broadcast/cablecast. This decision should be the final coffin nail for the regulatory claim of “cable programming bottleneck.” Obviously, studios have other means of reaching their audience, and are willing to use them when they have to.

Meanwhile, a Michigan user, commenting on the DirecTV-Viacom fight, told the MLive web site that “I love [DirecTV] compared to everyone else. I get local channels, I get sports channels. I wouldn’t have chosen if it was a problem.”

Now if Congress or the FCC steps up and requires that satellite and cable companies carry programming on behalf of Hollywood, the irony would be rich. Recall that just a few years ago, Congress and the FCC were pushing for a la carte regulation that would require cable companies to reduce total channel packaging and let consumers essentially pick  the ones they want. Even the Parents Television Council is glomming onto this, as reported in the Washington Post, although not precisely from a libertarian perspective.

“The contract negotiation between DirecTV and Viacom is the latest startling example of failure in the marketplace through forced product bundling,” said PTC President Tim Winter in a statement calling on Congress and the FCC to examine the issue. “The easy answer is to allow consumers to pick and pay for the cable channels they want,” he said.

Winter’s mistake is that he views DirecTV’s challenge to Viacom as marketplace failure. Quite the contrary, it is a sure sign of a functional marketplace when one party feels it has the leverage to say no to a supplier’s aggressive price increase. And while I would be against a ruling forcing cable and satellite companies to construct a la carte alternatives, market evolution may soon be taking us there, but perhaps not the way activists imagined.

I’ll hazard a guess to say that today’s viewer paradigm isn’t so much “I never watch such-and-such a channel” than “I only watch one show on such-and-such a channel.” When Dish cuts off AMC and DirecTV cuts off Comedy Channel et al, they are banking that their customers won’t miss the station, just a handful of shows that they will be motivated enough to find elsewhere, if they haven’t done so already.

It might take a pencil and paper, but there is enough price transparency for a budget-minded video consumer to calculate the best balance between multichannel TV program platforms like satellite and cable, pay-per-view video, free and paid digital downloads and DVD rentals. The cable cord (or satellite link) may be difficult to cut completely, but the $200-a-month bill packed with multiple premium channel packages is endangered. The video consumer of the near-future might still keep cable or satellite for ESPN for Monday Night Football, but turn to Netflix for Game of Thrones, iTunes for Breaking Bad, and the bargain DVD bin for a season box set of Dora the Explorer videos. DirecTV and Dish Network are confronting these economics by confronting studios on their distribution strategy. The studios, for their part, may find they can’t aggressively exploit other digital channels and keep raising rates for multichannel operators.

While disputes like this are messy for consumers in the short term, the resolution will be a consumer win because it will force multichannel operators and the studios to adapt to actual changes in consumer behavior, not a policymaker’s construct of competitive supply chain. Washington would be wise to stay out.

SHARE: 3 comments