Panel: Video Market is Changing, but It’s Unclear How Rules Should Adapt
Kristian Stout, ICLE’s Director of Innovation Policy, who recently joined an expert Panel at the Congressional Internet Caucus Academy event, was quoted in Communications Daily discussing the ongoing changes in the video distribution marketplace and their implications for existing regulatory frameworks. Read the full article here.
“Tim Lordan, executive director of the Internet Education Foundation, said members of Congress are going to feel increasing pressure to deal with the rapidly changing linear TV marketplace. Kristian Stout, director of innovation policy at the International Center for Law & Economics, said that marketplace is in flux, with business models diverging from the regulatory presumptions that underpinned those rules when they were crafted.
Leanza challenged the notion that new means of distribution were easily available to independent programmers. Smaller content providers can post content on places like Facebook, but if they don’t pay the platform to boost that content, no one will see it, she said. There needs to be a more level playing field that doesn’t charge to reach audiences, she added, noting that there are still programmers that are forced to sign contracts for MVPD carriage that bar them from also going direct-to-consumer.
Stout said a fundamental problem that legacy video producers face is competing against tech platforms with huge resources. For example, Amazon makes some money off its Prime Video, ‘but they almost don’t care’ since the video service is part of a larger ecosystem of services, he said.”