Is TV Everywhere a carrot or a stick?

Earlier this week, Fox shocked many by announcing that it would introduce TV Everywhere-type authentication to broadcast content online that used to be available for free the day after a show aired on TV. Weve written about the effect Foxs decision will have on consumers, but what about its distribution partners? After all, they will be the ones working to actually implement the authentication scheme, and as a result could end up paying a lot more to broadcasters.

Much of the rhetoric being bandied about so far seems to imply that Fox is acting in the interests of its cable and satellite distribution partners: By implementing TV Everywhere-type authentication for broadcast content online, its merely eliminating some of the friction thats cropped up in its negotiation over retransmission fees. No one was happy that Fox was demanding more compensation for content that appeared on cable and satellite when, lets face it, the network was essentially giving the same shows away for free on Fox.com and Hulu.

But adding authentication could also be a clever negotiating tactic as Fox seeks even higher fees from those distribution partners. Lets say youre Comcast or Time Warner Cable or DirecTV or any number of other major distributors that havent yet signed up for Foxs mid-August launch of online authentication: Fox comes to you and says that its finally implemented a sign-in system that will ensure only pay TV or Hulu Plus subscribers will have access to its content the day after it airs online. But now that it has, itd like to get paid a little more in retrans fees because, after all, itll be providing more value to your subscribers.

Do you pay up? Or do ! you risk disenfranchising your subscribers, who were once able to watch shows on Hulu the day after theyve aired but can no longer do so because their cable provider isnt a part of Foxs exclusive next-day club?

This is all theoretical, of course, but Foxs use of Hulu as a negotiating tool is not without precedent. It was Fox, after all, that blocked access to Hulu streams from Cablevision subscribers as part of its bitter dispute over retransmission fees last year. So using next-day access to online content as a way to extort even more retrans dollars wouldnt be totally out of the question.

And Fox is unlikely to be the only broadcast network to do so. Once it has proven the model that authentication equals more retrans money, you can expect CBS, ABC and NBC to jump on board as well, using next-day access to Hulu and network sites as an incentive to rework their deals with pay TV providers.

The big loser in all this will be consumers. Not only will they be used as pawns in the next round of retrans fights, but as a result they will lose access to a service theyve been accustomed to getting for free. And as broadcasters use access to online video as a way to squeeze ever-higher retrans fees from distributors, those costs will eventually get passed on to subscribers in the form of higher cable bills.

Fox and other broadcasters might justify the introduction of TV Everywhere-type logins as just extending the existing cable model online. But at the end of the day, it seems authentication is just a fancy word for charging users more.

Photo courtesy of (CC BY 2.0) Flickr user pasukaru76.

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