Obama to sign executive order to ignite corporate competition

The first paragraph of the article....

On Friday, President Barack Obama announced he would sign an Executive Order directing every relevant agency of the Federal government to take steps in identifying bottlenecks to competition and to create new ways to increase competition in the economy. The Executive Order puts agencies on a fast-track path to, within 60 days, identify the steps they’ll take.

Obama to sign executive order to ignite corporate competition

The story seems to focus on cable box competition.

Something about allowing people to like buy or rent their own boxes and ace out the existing cable company policies that may be monopolistic.

But it looks like Obama wants to spend millions of tax dollars throughout the whole executive branch to somehow get prices lower.

I wonder how they will deal with the imports from overseas "corporations".

Sounds like another Democrat campaign ruse.

How We're Taking Action To Fix It

That’s why today the President announced that his Administration is calling on the FCC to open up set-top cable boxes to competition. This will allow for companies to create new, innovative, higher-quality, lower-cost products.

products made in China and Mexico perhaps

a reply to: xuenchen

Funny thing is that most of the bottlenecks to competition are government imposed by making compliance with regulations so high that it drives out smaller players and raises the barriers to entry making the only viable entities large corporations who can absorb all the ancillary costs.

it is a problem from local governments all the way up to the litany of alphabet bureaucratic agencies - FDA, HUD, CFPB, EPA, etc to name a few.

a reply to: xuenchen

Writings on the wall for the cable companies..there is talk that they are looking to offer a more "A la Carte" type of menu when purchasing cable...

Seems that Netflix and Amazon in addition to youtube will put out better content to consumers without the need for excessive commercials..this is seriously hampering the way tv viewing will be looked at in the future...who needs a cable box when you have the internet...

With that said the internet that is provided through the cable companies will start to look at the amount of data you use similar to the cell phone...go over the data plan and you get charged..this will be one way they will be able to offset the drop off of subscribers but will kill those who constantly binge watch shows on netflix or play and stream stuff on their consoles...

For 200 bucks and less for some decent boxes you can get all the movies you want providing you have the internet...you can go on amazon and get a decent android box that accomplishes this goal...search dragon box if you are curious...

a reply to: chrismarco

I've Dropped by cable box about five years ago, never looked back. I have a basic antennae($40) that gives me all the basic channels, and I pay for internet. I subscribe to netflix, hulu and amazon prime, and no one in my family ever complains about not having something to watch... if anything, we have too much and not enough time to watch it all


ON TOPIC:

The first proposal "Government has to shut down and get out of the way!"

originally posted by: chrismarco
a reply to: xuenchen

Writings on the wall for the cable companies..there is talk that they are looking to offer a more "A la Carte" type of menu when purchasing cable...

Seems that Netflix and Amazon in addition to youtube will put out better content to consumers without the need for excessive commercials..this is seriously hampering the way tv viewing will be looked at in the future...who needs a cable box when you have the internet...

With that said the internet that is provided through the cable companies will start to look at the amount of data you use similar to the cell phone...go over the data plan and you get charged..this will be one way they will be able to offset the drop off of subscribers but will kill those who constantly binge watch shows on netflix or play and stream stuff on their consoles...

For 200 bucks and less for some decent boxes you can get all the movies you want providing you have the internet...you can go on amazon and get a decent android box that accomplishes this goal...search dragon box if you are curious...

Commercials will find a way to maintain.

I dont mind the commercials as long as I get to watch what I want to watch when I want to watch it.

Over-priced "prime-time" programming has no leg to stand on. Networks are going to suffer but who likes them anyway. The content can still find revenue without the networks.

originally posted by: PsychoEmperor
a reply to: chrismarco

I've Dropped by cable box about five years ago, never looked back. I have a basic antennae($40) that gives me all the basic channels, and I pay for internet. I subscribe to netflix, hulu and amazon prime, and no one in my family ever complains about not having something to watch... if anything, we have too much and not enough time to watch it all

ON TOPIC:

The first proposal "Government has to shut down and get out of the way!"

Yup.
Under thirty bucks a month.
The bad part is soon cable companies are going to hike rates for Internet access to make up for lost sales of smellovision.

Not liking a president using executive orders like a King or Prince.

He's not a King. He's not a Prince. He's a president of a republic.

a reply to: xuenchen

Being this close to the end of his final term, I don't trust anything he throws out there. I mean, what's the worst that could happen to him now. He's pretty much in the middle of his 2 week notice, the point you get to when you have the "who gives a #" attitude about the job you're about to leave behind.

originally posted by: John_Rodger_Cornman
Not liking a president using executive orders like a King or Prince.

He's not a King. He's not a Prince. He's a president of a republic.

No, you've got a congress who act like a bunch of school kids that leaves no other option. Maybe whoever wins next time they will be grown up enough to not deflect everything just to try and score points and actually look fully at the proposals.

originally posted by: uncommitted

originally posted by: John_Rodger_Cornman
Not liking a president using executive orders like a King or Prince.

He's not a King. He's not a Prince. He's a president of a republic.

No, you've got a congress who act like a bunch of school kids that leaves no other option. Maybe whoever wins next time they will be grown up enough to not deflect everything just to try and score points and actually look fully at the proposals.

Score points with who? If you think they're scoring points with the people, you're not paying attention.

at the end of the day, improving the economy of China and Mexico also benefits us. So not a huge issue with that, since we are already well down the road to globalization and have lost the manufacturing to make those products.

my thing is, the bottleneck in competition is almost all sitting in the world of regulatory oversight and antitrust. Everything you buy is made by the same few companies. Electronics has some competition, for sure. But outside of that...the lack of regulatory oversight has a couple of major players killing the hopes/dreams of everyone else.

We really do need to re-evaluate our market in the scope of antitrust legislation already in existence. Especially after the bank buy ups the big boys did during the financial crisis.

originally posted by: xuenchen
directing every relevant agency of the Federal government to take steps in identifying bottlenecks to competition.

Why does this remind me so much of Spaceballs?

a reply to: xuenchen

This is another perfect example of how NOT to use the Executive Order privilege.

Disgusting.

a reply to: xuenchen

So, basically he's going to sign some superficial EO that will, for a few months, waste taxpayer dollars, come up with nothing, and then probably be negated by the new POTUS.

Could he be any more superficial?

Does he even know that the only thing that government intervention does in commerce is make it slower, more expensive, and generally of lower quality?

a reply to: chrismarco

That's why customers had better state to the cable companies very bluntly and clearly that they are "Grandfathered In" to the fixed monthly price. If not, they cancel their service - COMPLETELY.

The problem with cable though I think is that it is really an intellectual property issue. The producers of the shows really drive what cable can and cannot offer. The entire entertainment business model and supply chain is not really designed around people being able to pick and choose certain shows.

For example, if I could get each and every show I wanted online, I would. But the reality is that I can't. There isn't one clearing house to do so. You have to piece together all these different competing services to truly get access to what shows you want. While I'd love to save money, the hassle isn't worth it to me yet.

The wife and I sat down and tried to do it, but we literally had like netflix, rocku, xbox, cable, HBO on demand, and all these other services trying to piece together overlapping shows we watched. By the time we paid for all the various show access, we really weren't saving enough money over our typical cable bill to justify the increased headache.

Who does he think he is?

This is already being addressed by the market. You just have to cut the cord and go with a streaming service. Of course, his new net neutrality regs are going to take care of that I guess ...

a reply to: Edumakated

It's more of a network thing.

Companies have a family bundle of networks and they negotiate rates with the cable companies. The cable company can't just buy one really successful or popular channel that a lot of people watch. They have to pay the broadcast group for the whole bundle of channels that come with that one channel, so they get a bunch of crap at an inflated price, and they pass that on to the consumer who pays a huge bill for the one or two channels he wants and ends up with a hole lot of crap he never asked for and can't stop paying for.

Look at the list of crap that comes from Viacom alone. How many of those do you watch, and how many do you get? You don't have a choice.

Off topic:
New President cannot "repeal" EOs by previous presidents.

Congress is SUPPOSED to argue about laws and taxes. If they pass nothing, then they are doing their job. If they were passing everything in their ledger, they would not be doing their job.

Congress is supposed to debate, and argue about the Pros and Cons of everything that crosses their "to-do" list. By NOT passing a #ton of bills, good ones or bad ones, they are doing essentially what they were elected to do.
The "Hollywood" acting they all pull off tho, is way beyond what would be respectable. They are all a bunch of pre-Madonnas now. They're all corrupted now, and follow agendas that are, typically, NOT in the interest of their constituents.

Besides, not passing bills and laws means no new rules for us plebes to follow. You cannot legislate stupid, nor can you legislate EVERYTHING and remain a FREE society.

On-Topic:

Geez, Obama is behind the times. Let "cable" tv die like it should have years ago. Most "smart" tvs now come with internet built into them, so you can pull up anything you could possibly want from the web, on-top of having Netflix, Hulu, and Youtube as "built-in" apps on the TVs.

I cut my cable 7 years ago, haven't looked back. That extra $200 a month comes in handy, especially with the rising cost of necessities.

More pork-barrel butt kissing..

originally posted by: John_Rodger_Cornman
Not liking a president using executive orders like a King or Prince.

He's not a King. He's not a Prince. He's a president of a republic.

You need to take that up with George Washington and every President since. Although in this case the EO does not really do anything. It has government agencies look at ways they increase or at least not slow competition. And encourages the FCC to work some more competitiveness. Since he can not tell the FCC what to do.

In the end this EO does not do anything. It is more of a way to encourage the FCC and cable companies to treat consumers more fairly or lose out to other types of services. Its costs nothing and is intended to keep the issue in the media and public spot light. By making it and EO instead of just a press release its gets more attention from the media.