I often wonder how it can be that I love the internet so much, but hate the people who ultimately bring it to me. Maybe it’s the sweatheart exclusivity deals that cut into consumer choice or the way the networks are able to dictate the terms of the net to their subscribers, but it’s very frustrating to see companies spend millions of dollars buying politicians and then force sub-par programming and services down consumers throats.
Now normally, I take issue with the telecoms and in the recent net neutrality debate, I’ve been more then disappointed to see that none of the telecoms are willing to step up and provide unfettered access to consumers, but today my ire is at Disney for trying to create a net negativity environment with their ESPN 360 website.
Taking a page from the school yard bully who would take their ball and go home if you don’t play by their rules, Disney has launched an initive where they are trying to charge the telecom companies so that consumers have access to their website. Rather then turning their ESPN 360 website into a pay service, Disney wants the telecoms to subsidize their content costs. As a consumer I hope that Disney fails miserably in this effort. I have no problem with them wanting to charge a monthly fee for consumer to access their content, but it should be up to customers who are willing to pay for that to subsidize their content, not the companies that provide access. If Disney is successful in convincing the telecoms to sign off on the scheme, it will set a dangerous precident where consumers will have to pay for website packages instead of buying their web content ala carte. Essentially, it would create a series of internets instead of one network that all consumers have access to.
If Disney wants to take their ball and go home, I say let them. If they think consumers are going to start calling up their cable companies and demanding that we have access to their ESPN 360 site then they are crazy. I hope that more telecoms will see this ploy for what it is and that there is a backlash to Disney for trying something this stupid.