Craig Birkmaier wrote: > When USDTV signs up a customer at WalMart (in a market they serve) > the cost to the customer is $99 for the box. So somebody is > subsidizing the difference, and the cost to WalMart to sell the boxes > (and their profit) must also be accounted for. That accounting is > based on the total revenue from the subscriber for a one year > committment: > > $99 for the box > $19.95/month =3D $239.40 > > Total $338.40 Craig, this is getting too silly. The total cost to a subscriber is $338 for the first year. So? Are you implying by this that the box costs that much? I'll do even better. The cost for the first two years is $577.80. Then I'll postulate that USDTV expects the average subscriber to hold on to the same STB for two years at least, and I will conclude that the actual cost of the box is almost $600. Man, these things are expensive. > The real question is whether Hisense is going to build the OTHER > 300,000 units. My educated guess is that they will not make more > boxes until they can integrate the new LG tuners this fall. > Meanwhile, if you want a cheap - SUBSIDIZED - ATSC STB, this is the > best deal in town... Sounds very familiar. Sounds like the same dynamics that caused Freeview boxes to become so cheap. A large inventory of idle ITV boxes. This put pressure on the new DVB-T boxes built after that inventory ran out. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.