Where's my buggy whip?

[by Todd] Surprise, surprise! The television broadcast industry wants to restrict where you go to watch content on line. WSJ broke down the issue nicely here (subscription required). The core issue is that for 50 years the broadcast entertainment industry has done business one way predicated on geography.

TV studios, for example, make most of their profits through syndication, or selling reruns to local stations in the U.S. and abroad. The business model is based on simple geographic boundaries, and although there is some overlap, stations generally limit their reach to the local market. That gives syndicators 210 different markets in the U.S. alone. International stations add hundreds more.

But the Internet erases those geographic boundaries. So if you wanted to watch a Cubs game from WGN in Chicago, but you live in Atlanta, you wouldn't need to subscribe to a cable operator that carries that channel. Instead you, theoretically, could watch it online. And that doesn't please the powers that be.

Of particular concern to the vested interest is Slingbox, the $200 box that links your TV tuner to the net, then lets you tune in from anywhere in the world. So what do TV station owners want to do about this new-found freedom? Check out the suggestion of Jerald Fritz, senior vice president for legal and strategic affairs at Allbritton Communications Co., which owns local stations in six states and Washington, D.C.

Mr. Fritz says one solution would be for the device maker and the program-rights owner to share any resulting profits, even if it takes a lawsuit to reach that point. "We're trying to figure out how that would work," he says.

It's sad really. But industry after industry has fought the wrong battle when the Internet comes calling. Rather than looking for the new opportunities, they fight tooth and nail to turn back the tide of progress.