Cable Co’s Target… ESPN?

In a round about way, yes. The deal is many cable co’s pay a fee to carry something like ESPN360 then ESPN also charges a fee to the subscriber. What’s wrong with this after the jump –

To enable consumers to have reasonable access to all web-based content and services, the Commission must prohibit content providers from mandating wholesale access fees from broadband providers at discriminatory rates, terms and conditions.
Denying access to content is not a new phenomenon. For cable operators, video programmers have long denied subscribers access to their content unless the distributor agrees to pay an access fee, dedicate bandwidth for the content, and distribute it to a set percentage of the operator’s customers. This obligates all of the operator’s customers to pay for content regardless of whether each customer wants it.
Rural customers are especially affected. The independent operators who often serve smaller markets and rural areas are often forced to pay higher fees and accept more onerous terms and conditions than larger distributors. As a result, many rural customers are either unable to access content they desire, or are forced to pay higher monthly fees than they wish.

The above is a missive from an ACA filing to the FCC on the nature of services like ESPN360 on behalf of its rural carrier members. Full PDF is here.

Here’s the problem with something like ESPN’s model. Cable Co’s typically contract with a HBO to be able to provide content on its cable channels. Another words a cable version of the network affiliate model. Along comes ESPN asking for a fee. One would assume that its the same model as we just described. Unfortunately it is not.

The ESPN service is a IP based service like Hulu. So the fee is a charge not a subscription to the cable co. What’s even odder is that ESPN won’t provide the service to an IP customer unless their carrier has paid the fee! In that kind of arrangement I can see the angst ACA has. Under those circumstances the table ought to be turned. ESPN should be PAYING a fee to offset the data traffice created by their service.

Telecom get weirder every day.

HT: Wired