[M4IF Discuss] RE: [M4IF News] MPEG-4 Visual and Systems Licensing Announced!!

[William J. Fulco]

Marc,
That is a much more reasonable interpretation of how it "should" work. In
addition to the churn issue, there is an issue of what exactly is "a content
package" - I have for instance 4 or 5 "packages" on my DirecTV - basic,
HBO/Sho, Sports etc etc.. if there is just a right to distribute anyone's
content to a single decoder the answer is simple and reasonable however, by
that token, shouldn't then each web-site have to pay a $1.25 fee to MPEG-LA
for the right to send content to a subscriber (vs. the $0.25/sub over 50K
subs, cap at $1M that the license says?)... If I were TW/AOL, I'd cost less
to deliver via broadband vs. Sat/Cable)
In a converged world - where I have a broadband-connected TiVo and my
programming can arrive over the Sat, cable or via the modem - the economics
of distribution for the producers of content is going to get very
complicated.
++Bill
William J. Fulco
wjf   NetworkXXIII.com
310-927-4263 Cell
---------------------------------
Logic: When you absolutely, positively
have to refute every fallacy in the room.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marc Tayer [mailto:MTayer   aerocast.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2023 11:59 AM
> To: 'Fevzi Karavelioglu'; William J. Fulco
> Cc: Mikael Bourges-Sevenier; 'Rob Koenen'; 'M4IF news (E-mail)'; 'M4IF
> Discussion List (E-mail)'
> Subject: RE: [M4IF Discuss] RE: [M4IF News] MPEG-4 Visual and Systems
> Licensing Announced!!
>
>
> While clarifications will be required on this and other issues, my
> interpretation is that the answer to the question posed below is "no."
>
> There was a key parenthetical omitted from the question:
> "the party having the unique relationship of providing content service to
> the subscriber (e.g., cable television system or direct satellite
> provider)
> will pay a royalty of $1.25 for the paid-up right..."
>
> My interpretation of this language is that the PACKAGER/AGGREGATOR of the
> content (e.g., DirecTV for DBS or Cox for cable) would pay the $1.25 per
> subscriber paid-up license. So, for a DBS operator with 10 million
> subscribers, each having MPEG-4 decode capability, the DBS operator would
> pay a $12.5 million one time fee, IRRESPECTIVE of how many individual
> content providers are part of the package(s) offered to the subscriber(s).
>
> Assuming this interpretation is correct, what about "churn?" In
> other words,
> if a system operator has 10 million digital subscribers at a
> point in time,
> a year later perhaps 2 million or even 5 million of these specific
> subscribers will have disconnected. Does the system operator get
> to use this
> paid up license fee for a new subscriber, i.e., is it based on "net"
> (non-specific) subscribers? Or is it based on "gross" (and specific)
> subscribers?