How to stop TV show piracy

Look, this is probably not a unique idea, even though I haven’t heard it articulated in this way anywhere else. More importantly I’m not even sure I should be putting out ideas that help the big 4 broadcasting corporations – I’m reasonably steamed at some of the latest things that have happened that have impeded my enjoyment of content – encrypting basic broadcast tv on the cable networks and all the litigation meant to squash the ability of startups to innovate. Plus some or any of the permutations of this might actually be used to harm consumers. Still this might be useful. And if you try to harm consumers; well, they won’t buy what you’re selling. Basically.

That off my chest, this latest détente where the industry is spending a ton of money trying to prevent piracy and failing, leaving a large swath of what economists euphemistically call “a market” out in the cold to do ‘illegal downloads’ in order to satisfy legitimate desire for content is simply too stupid for words. Read this article to get some basic orientation on what issues are at play: a)’Illegal downloading is happening and is increasing over time b)Prevention and policing is having negligible impact c)The younger generation have no compunction engaging in (a) when the media companies willfully refuse to produce alternatives to fit their lifestyles d)The ISPs who own the pathways have no incentive to allow their customers to be dragged to court en masse which is what the current strategy on (b) is oriented towards.

But what if you could make a system that works? Here are the pieces I would put in place:

Offer a universal download service for all customers of broadcast TV

This really means to everyone in America. You can watermark it if you want, although I would prefer if not. Make sure people can stream, download and load on mobile devices. Release apps on all mobile platforms so this can be done on the go as seamlessly as possible. This value add will actually start connecting you to your customers finally.

Payment for this service is done through your ISP bill

Yes, give the ISPs some skin in the game. Most EVERYONE already has an ISP account. They deliver the last mile anyway – they should get a small cut paving the highway but also for the work of collecting all that money. But it’s not just a cut, you can use your ISP login to get the content no matter what network you are in. In effect this is not an argument against net neutrality – traffic management should not enter into the equation at all. Instead is an argument on how best to authenticate yourself for downloadable broadcast content. Since no one is technically a customer of the broadcast networks (the content is put on the air for free and ad subsidized), it makes no sense to start forcing everyone to sign up to some arbitrary new service. Note that of course this can be done without the ISPs, but then they have no incentive to participate in any scheme to discourage continued bad actors to any degree of significance.

I can already hear the cats in my media strategy class chirping – who owns the customers? Why should they go through the ISPs? And my answer is a) The broadcast networks don’t own the customer anyway – they are compelled to put the content out into the public airwaves for free, in return they can use the public airwaves to rake in ad dollars. Very few Americans have an account on ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX. They rise and fall on making great content – something they know how to compete on and excel at – they lose no leverage through this arrangement b) By moving into mobile, they actually can start a relationship with customers, especially if you see the ISPs as functionally an authentication system. You can build customer-visible systems like customer support, the backend, etc, that allows you to “own” the customer interaction over time or at least gives you the strategic opening to do so down the line.

Hulu is certainly part of the equation, but it does not offer CBS content and it does not allow downloads and its far from cross platform – its quirks on tablets for example are incomprehensible; some shows are available on the browser but not available on the iPad. Riddle me that.

The broadcast networks can and should do better. The current situation is kind of ridiculous.