Live data from Hacker News

Cities sue Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, claim they owe cable “franchise fees”

arstechnica.com

121–127 of 127 posts

Re: Cities sue Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, claim they owe cable “franchise fees”

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drilled that into my kids from an early age, and they’ve always known to only input fake data... that’s why she only gets ads for health insurance, back medication, and financial investments lol!

That's definitely a valid individual choice, but from a systemic perspective it's way stupider than non-targeted ads. Also, be warned that mistargeted advertisements might introduce adult topics. "Daddy, what is erectile dysfunction?"

>be warned that mistargeted advertisements might introduce adult topics. "Daddy, what is erectile dysfunction?"

Is that a bad thing? I was perfectly capable of understanding what a viagra ad is and ignoring it when I was in elementary school. It doesn't take much. Imo all this parental control around sex is more about parents feeling uncomfortable than it is about kids being unable to understand it or somehow get "scarred" from it.

Re: Cities sue Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, claim they owe cable “franchise fees”

#122
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that malfeasance at the federal level is bad (and it is at a historically bad level right now), the local stuff is a thousand times worse. A local Indiana city will absolutely be able to completely fuck with Netflix access of their residents. And the residents may have little recourse. After all they could just legally implement a 100% sales tax on streaming services sold to residents of their jurisdicti…

> A local Indiana city will absolutely be able to completely fuck with Netflix access of their residents ... they could just legally implement a 100% sales tax on streaming services sold to residents of their jurisdiction Population of local Indiana city as a % of Netflix global consumer base? What would Netflix's response likely be? > the residents may have little recourse What would you do if Netflix increased your…

Where I live, all new taxes or tax hikes have to be approved by ballot measure. I believe it's true of the last place I lived as well (different state). So if you live somewhere that the government has the ability to unilaterally levy taxes and does not even pretend to act on the behalf of its constituency, I think the problem goes beyond Netflix.

Re: Cities sue Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, claim they owe cable “franchise fees”

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's definitely a valid individual choice, but from a systemic perspective it's way stupider than non-targeted ads. Also, be warned that mistargeted advertisements might introduce adult topics. "Daddy, what is erectile dysfunction?"

>be warned that mistargeted advertisements might introduce adult topics. "Daddy, what is erectile dysfunction?" Is that a bad thing? I was perfectly capable of understanding what a viagra ad is and ignoring it when I was in elementary school. It doesn't take much. Imo all this parental control around sex is more about parents feeling uncomfortable than it is about kids being unable to understand it or somehow get "sc…

I can solidly get behind a parent who chooses to have "the sex talk" very early in the child's life, but if that's not done, then I think it's important to keep them from getting unvetted information. If they do bump into something, coming straight to a parent with questions is a best case scenario.

Re: Cities sue Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, claim they owe cable “franchise fees”

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>be warned that mistargeted advertisements might introduce adult topics. "Daddy, what is erectile dysfunction?" Is that a bad thing? I was perfectly capable of understanding what a viagra ad is and ignoring it when I was in elementary school. It doesn't take much. Imo all this parental control around sex is more about parents feeling uncomfortable than it is about kids being unable to understand it or somehow get "sc…

I can solidly get behind a parent who chooses to have "the sex talk" very early in the child's life, but if that's not done, then I think it's important to keep them from getting unvetted information. If they do bump into something, coming straight to a parent with questions is a best case scenario.

I bumped into multiple "somethings" as a kid and I didn't really discuss anything with my parents. I figured it out myself. It's not that hard for kids to do and I know most of my friends did the same.

Re: Cities sue Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, claim they owe cable “franchise fees”

#125

This reminds me of the DR (Denmarks Radio - which is also a Public TV sort of like the BBC) license, you used to have to pay it for TV. I didn't have a tv so I stopped paying. Then a year or two later they passed a law that if you had a computer you had to pay. I guess lots of European countries have a similar license. They are phasing the license out in the next couple years, but it used to really piss me off becaus…

In Italy the TV tax is now auto-included in the facilities bill. You have to explicitly declare that you don't have a TV and repeat it each year.

Re: Cities sue Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, claim they owe cable “franchise fees”

#126
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Centurylink has pulled quite a bit of fiber in Seattle over the last 3 years, but their expansion plans are erratic (eg: putting a 12 port GPON aerial terminal in the middle of blocks of 4 story MDUs that aren't allowed to use it) and the serviceability database often has said GPON ports misallocated due to incorrect identification of the number of units in a particular property. I think Centurylink is hard up for ca…

One of the things that distinguishes the 1Gbps to the home market in Seattle is the number of MDU specialists, and percentage of 35+ unit apartments or condos that have at least one gigabit provider in the building. I'm thinking of the AS54858 network (CondoInternet/WaveG), independent smaller player Atlas Networks, in addition to Comcast and Centurylink. The WaveG MDU network is in a lot of places in the city which…

Centurylink did not have a franchise agreement with the city prior to them offering TV service over fiber FYI

Re: Cities sue Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, claim they owe cable “franchise fees”

#127

By that reasoning, I'm using the "Public right of way" to make this comment. Therefore, I'm a defendant. Listen, I get it. They want some compensation from Netflix, Hulu and Disney+ eating up all their local bandwidth. But that's where the money was. They need to skate where the money is going, not where it was. The money was in broadcast TV and cable. And most of it is still there. But it's rapidly being sucked away…

> And at some point advertisers are going to wake up and realize the premium that broadcast and cable operators are charging per 1000 viewers is not really worth that much more than what YouTube pays Jake Paul. Tangential: I was watching free to air last night with my 7 year old (we both never watch TV) and she innocently asked “does everyone watching this show see the same ad”. I said yes and the look on her face sa…

In some situations, not everyone watches the same ads. If you are watching a local rebroadcaster, the ads can be (and in my experience, are) replaced with more relevant ads to your town/city.

  "A television re-broadcaster may sell local or regional advertising for broadcast only on the local transmitter. Rarely, they may air limited programming distinct from their parent station. Some "semi-satellites" broadcast local newscasts or separate news segments in part of a newscast."[0] 
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_relay_station
Post reply on HN