Justice Department Probing Internet TV Interference (Report)
Word of a possible antitrust probe comes after Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt raised eyebrows this week by reportedly telling analysts at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association show that some of its contracts prohibited the delivery of content to online pay-TV services. Bloomberg picked up on the comment and reported that pay-TV operators were offering incentives to programmers agreeing to withhold content from Intel and Apple.
Intel made a splash earlier this year with confirmation that it was pursuing an online-TV service to be launched later this year. The tech company has been looking at offering consumers an a la carte choice of channels as well as “cloud DVR” and other apps. To do this, Intel needs content and has reportedly been offering to pay a premium to programmers.
Perhaps sensing a threat of cord-cutting, pay-TV distributors are allegedly interjecting themselves.
Carriage agreements routinely have “most favored nation” clauses that allow specific pay-TV distributors to be granted the same online rights as competitors. Britt said as much to analysts.
But Britt’s reported comment at the Washington, DC conference suggested its contracts went further. “We may well have ones that have that prohibition,” said Britt, according to Bloomberg. “This is not a cookie-cutter kind of business.”
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