Big media tests the TVoIP waters with free premium content

Here’s an undeniable fact broadcasters and pay TV operators are going to have to face - sooner rather than later: Downloaded and streaming content will continue displace an increasing number of the eyeballs they once kept easily in their domain. The main reason is simple, TVoIP provides a direct channel from the producer / distributor to the consumer. Producers can sell ads based on actual views instead of guesses, and a much larger pool of advertisers will have access to a new content channel they could never afford to buy in the scheduled broadcast model. Programs that need a little more time to find their audience will get a chance. Recently the trend for producers of premium content for MSO’s have been offering on demand streams of some of their most popular shows. With more mass appeal content available free and easy on demand, the more viewers will take advantage of viewing on their schedule instead of the broadcasters’.

Until recently, few of the main made-for-cable programs have been available to watch in full over the Internet, even as broadcast networks have started streaming full episodes of most of their shows. The reason is that cable and satellite systems pay large fees to networks for what they have seen as exclusive rights to their content. (Their deals with broadcast networks are less restrictive.)

In recent months, that has started to change as programs such as USA’s “Monk” and “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” on TBS become available on the Internet. But many other signature cable programs, like ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and CNN’s “Larry King Live” are not regularly Webcast in their entirety.

That’s why my eyebrows jumped when I saw the announcement last week that full episodes of three Comedy Central shows — “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report” and “South Park” — will start being Webcast, both on MTV-owned sites and on the Fancast site from Comcast. (Comedy Central, which is owned by Viacom’s MTV Networks unit, has been Webcasting “South Park” episodes for a few months.) (New York Times)

One troubling thing to consider as this develops. Most of the access providers are also pay TV providers. Never before has being in both businesses presented so many conflicts. If we won’t undo the duopoly, we may need to force them to spin off their pay TV businesses just to provide an opportunity for new methods of content delivery to have a chance to succeed.