[opendtv] Re: An Unsteady Future for Broadcast
- From: Albert Manfredi <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:35:44 -0500
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> They do need a serious infusion of creativity;
> other than a handful of shows, Broadcast TV is
> becoming the vast wasteland that FCC Chairman
> Newton Minnow posited in 1961.
Doesn't make sense to me. Who produces those cable shows that you think are so
interesting? Isn't it the same congloms? What makes you think that some of this
previously non-OTA stuff can't be available OTA?
You've said many times that cable allows more niche-oriented shows to be
delivered, right? Well, so would OTA, if used right. Maybe not as many as
cable, but certainly more than the three they keep talking about in these
"analytical" articles.
> Your 30 channels are NOT the stuff that the
> American viewing public is most interested in.
Why the hell not? What's so difficult about transmitting, say, something like
HGTV or Monk on OTA multicasts? As a matter of fact, our MNT affiliate is doing
just that, with Monk, previously only a cable show. What's to prevent this
trend? I can't believe that shows like Monk are so very popular on cable that
the cable companies hold on to them jealously. And perhaps that would be
illegal anyway, under some sort of "restraint of trade" clause or other. My
view is, the only thing to prevent this should be price.
> TV stations must pay for the content they air - and
> yes they now pay the networks rather than the other
> way around. If the networks pull their content from
> local broadcasters, local stations will have nothing
> left to air except the limited local news they
> produce and syndicated programming.
You used to think that this is the preferred model. What you used to call,
"separate content from carriage," more like the Euro FOTA model. If station
groups pay, then station groups decide what to air. They shouldn't be tied to
just one conglom. So they can operate more like a mini-MVPD. Cool. Why wouldn't
the owners of the show go ahead and sell it to station groups, if the price is
right? Do you really think they are afraid of losing significant numbers of
cable customers?
And once again, I could have access to at least 30 streams from *local*
broadcast stations, if they bothered to use the spectrum they already have. Not
duplicates, as you continue to insist. I already showed you this.
The OTA station groups don't have a large fleet of trucks and techs to keep on
the payroll in every market. That should count for something. Even if they
can't make that 60 percent profit.
Bert
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