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Strategies & Market Trends : ahhaha's ahs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GraceZ who wrote (497)	11/30/2000 12:51:05 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24758

"I would think that anyone that is going to rent a movie will want to search, browse or view a trailer... and it makes much more sense to do this over the Internet." No doubt, but I could do that using a browser when accessing the Internet via dsl, if your proposed configuration were truly an "open" Internet connection. But I sense that you are referring to something that is proprietary between the MSO and Home. That would appear to be a good idea, at first, but when you think about it some more, given the issues surrounding exclusivity and the prospect of true sovereignty <how does 'independence' sound?> for Home at some point, then it doesn't look so good. If it is open Internet, then I don't need a cable modem to do that. Anything beyond a pure Internet connection, however, would involve back office linkage and cross-product development involving both Home and any one of up to thirty or more MSOs and independent operators. That could turn out to be a lot of proprietary integration work. At that point each party becomes tied to the other, and neither is able to stand on its own, with respect to the VoD service we're discussing. As long as the browser controls the TV part in an independent and "open" manner, I don't see a problem with it. Tell me, under your proposed arrangement, when Mindspring subs and others get onto the system via OA, will their browsers permit the same level of STB/VoD search, control and previewing as Home's?