"Don't Touch That Dial--Or You're Under Arrest!"

[Michael Perelman]

Kramer, Staci D. 2002. "Content's King: Jamie Kellner Controls Turner's Programming
Riches." Cableworld (29 April).
<http://www.inside.com/product/product.asp?entity=CableWorld&pf_ID=7A2ACA71-FAAD-41FC-A100-0B8A11C30373>

 He says that skipping ads is theft.
 "Jamie Kellner would be the first to tell you he is no VOD visionary. What he is,
though, is the chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting, which puts him in charge of
what could be one of the most potent collections of VOD [Video on Demand] content
anywhere."
 JK: "I'm a big believer we have to make television more convenient or we will drive
the penetration of PVRs [Personal Video Recorders?] and things like that, which I'm
not sure is good for the cable industry or the broadcast industry or the networks."
CW [Cable World]: Why not?
 JK: "Because of the ad skips ....  It's theft.  Your contract with the network when
you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the
show on an ad-supported basis.  Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button
you're actually stealing the programming."
 CW: What if you have to go to the bathroom or get up to get a Coke?
 JK: "I guess there's a certain amount of tolerance for going to the bathroom.  But
if you formalize it and you create a device that skips certain second increments,
you've got that only for one reason, unless you go to the bathroom for 30 seconds.
They've done that just to make it easy for someone to skip a commercial."
CW: What if I'm using my PVR to ... keep watching the network when I might otherwise
miss the shows?"
 JK: "Is it good for me?  It's good to make it easier for consumers to watch the
programs they want to watch.  I'm not opposed to consumers getting a program without
commercials in it.  But they have to create a new model that charges them for that
programming the way HBO charges them."
 JK: "Again, I think that whether it's legislation, whether it's new technology,
whether it's challenging Betamax, whatever it is in the video marketplace, we're
going to have to find a way to protect copywritten material or there will be less of
it made or it will not be made available in windows where it's not protectable and
that's not good for consumers, so there's got to be some way it's protected.  The
audio marketplace -- Napster and other companies had a great game going.  They
figured out how to use the Internet to give music away that they didn't own and make
it into a business.  Everyone was planning on getting rich there at one point.  The
companies that are financing and own copyrights stepped in and challenged it, and
it's not a very rosy picture for them right now.  I think the idea of copyright is
very important -- and it's respected by the courts and our government -- and as
people realize the potential of what the Internet with digital can do in terms of
distribution, I think there's a good decision to be made that will protect the
copyright ....  Someone's going to have to recognize that once we've entered the
digital world people can send out perfect copies without any costs to large numbers
of people in many different territories of the world [and] can dramatically disrupt
the system that we've built that allows us to produce and distribute content and pay
for it and make ... a profit in the investment, and that has to be addressed."

--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu