NYT: “Don’t hand our TVs over to Google”

The New York Times published an op-ed that explains what’s really behind the FCC’s set-top box issue: a data give-away to Google from the federal government. The FCC’s proposal, which Google supports, pays lip service to a competitive marketplace, but it would upend the video economic system and risk video customers’ personal data to benefit the $500 billion corporation.

From NYT’s “Don’t Hand Our TVs Over to Google”:

Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commissionresolved to “unlock the box,” requiring cable companies to give video streaming, programming and encryption data to companies like Google that make stand-alone alternatives to the traditional cable set-top box. Done right, this could unleash innovation and usher in a new era in which televisions become a direct extension of our online world. Unfortunately, the F.C.C.’s proposal threatens to replace one set of powerful gatekeepers with a new one: Google.

For years, Google has been jockeying to control the nation’s TVs. If, thanks to the F.C.C., Google succeeds, it will get access to the real prize: the data that flows through these boxes. The company wants that information to help it sell advertising.

The F.C.C.’s proposal would give Google free access to the raw TV programming data it needs to power its search engine for TV. In effect, Google could use the data to become the modern version of the program guide, connecting users to the TV shows and movies that Google’s search algorithms determine are relevant.

The Communications Workers of America made a similar point in its comments on the FCC’s set-top box proposal. The proposal, CWA wrote, will upend the video market system, allowing tech giants such as Google to free-load off the value and audiences that video distributors, networks, and programmers have jointly created. Google would be able to swap its own advertising for the ads sold by networks and video distributors. Moreover, Google would be able to combine customers’ viewing data with its own analytics and powerful algorithms.

The result of the proposal would be more advertising dollars for Google, less investment for everyone else – less investment in quality programming and the network for customers, and less investment in the workers who create content and build, service, and maintain the network.

Read the full Times piece here and CWA’s full comments here.

Links:

Don’t Hand Our TVs Over to Google (New York Times, May 30, 2016)

Set-top box Comments to the FCC (CWA, Apr. 22, 2016)

Set-top box Comments to the FCC (DGA/IATSE, Apr. 22, 2016)