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Comment by cinskiy | Hacker News Reader

I'm not American and I heard of this company for the first time, but it's obvious for me that 'over the air' is the progress, and 'over the physical cable' is not, and it seems to me that physical cable owners want to block progress, and an unreasonable toll solely for owning the cable, because they know they will never own the air.

Same thing with Tesla and car dealerships. Why would I need a dealership, if I can order a car to my door online straight from the manufacturer these days?

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I'm not sure why you are talking about cable owners here. The plaintiffs in this case are broadcast stations and networks, not cable companies.

I must've misunderstood the article then.

It is more economically efficient for the manufacturer to deliver ~300 cars to one location every couple of months and have the 300 customers drive the "last mile" to their homes when they want to buy a car.

The alternative is to have the manufacturer drive all the way to each customer's house at a time the customer chooses individually.

The current system of car delivery is a better use of energy/people's time than autos on demand.

Cars on demand don't prevent the manufacturer from having local warehouses to where they deliver ~300 cars every couple of months, so the energy expended doesn't really change, only who does the last-mile driving (new owner versus some employee). If anything, a warehouse will waste much less than a dealership holding the same number of cars.

As for it being a better use of people's time, if people are choosing the buy from the websites vis-a-vis going to dealerships, I'd say they have shown otherwise.

If you're suggesting that removing the sales staff, mechanic shop, and loud promotions from car dealerships would cut costs, I agree.

Perhaps we agree on all counts. I do not understand how a dealership and a local warehouse differ in a conversation about how to distribute auto inventory for sale.

Well, I guess the issue is that I didn't think that was the conversation we were having. cinskiy asked why would one need a dealership, when one can order directly from the manufacturer - this doesn't imply anything about the distribution of inventory, just how the sales process works.

The parent may have been referring to states with laws prohibiting Tesla from opening its own dealerships or selling directly to customers in those states.

This has nothing to do with the cable companies. It's the broadcast networks, who actually make the content that people want to watch. Internet-types like Aereo and Youtube have been trying to free-ride on their efforts for a decade now, getting viewers by distributing content they didn't create. And when the content creators legitimately complain about it, the internet-types paint them as "holding back progress."

By owning and using broadcast spectrum, these content providers are in a unique position in the market. By broadcasting for free over the air, they have the privilege of reaching huge audiences easily. The fact that nowadays most people don't use an antenna isn't particularly relevant, because the content providers grew and achieved dominance due to the ease with which their viewers could tune in. Their entire business model is based on being able to charge outrageous prices for advertisements because they reach a /large audience/.

Now, they're trying to have it both ways. The intent of public broadcast is to operate for the 'public interest, convenience and necessity.' The entire purpose of broadcast television is that it's broadcast freely and accessibly. If they don't like that model, and think they can be more successful through a closed system, they of course have every right to give up their broadcast spectrum and sell their content elsewhere, rather than offering for free. What they can't do is pretend that their content deserves to be available for free OTA but somehow comes at a premium if delivered through any other means. If they make that argument they are dragging their feet and refusing to meet the intent and spirit of broadcast television.

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