[opendtv] Re: Bob likes COFDM

Kon reiterates what is often stated as "the reality," if we were to 
change horses at this point. But the reality may be much different, 
depending on what broadcasters "could" do to become more competitive.

We have seen a new competitor - DBS - take 25% market share in less 
than 10 years based on the business model they implemented to compete 
with cable. They made it easy for consumers to switch by subsidizing 
the cost of receivers; and now they are in the process of migrating 
about 25 million homes to next generation receivers that will use 
improved modulation and improved video compression.

If broadcasters were to offer a service like Freeview, that is easy 
to install, easy to receive and FREE, I suspect that the early 
adopters of ATSC would be the first in line to BUY new receivers.

There are many ways to create ATTRACTIVE business models. What we 
have witnessed over the past decade in the U.S. is a classic case 
study in how NOT to run a broadcast business.

I believe that Kon's concerns are grossly overstated. With the small 
number of ATSC receivers deployed, the cost to simply replace them 
would be MUCH LESS than the cost to give digital receivers to the 
millions of homes that now rely on NTSC. What's more, the ability to 
offer subscription and cached VOD services on top of the free 
service, would provide revenue streams to help subsidize the cost of 
receivers for everyone.

Is this not what USDTV and Hisense are doing?

Regards
Craig


At 8:53 AM -0800 3/25/05, Kon Wilms wrote:
>
>Mind if I volunteer you?
>
>We need someone to replace all those ATSC modulators in every station
>around the country that has purchased one.
>
>Oh, and buy back all those ATSC set-tops too. If you don't do it, I'm
>going to sue you. And if you replace my friend's receiver and forget to
>replace mine, I'm going to sue you. If you think you can sign some law
>to only replace a certain segment of the marketplace, I'm going to get
>all my friends and we're going to sue you - or the local broadcasters,
>whichever is the easiest to extract money out of and/or put out of
>business in the process (if they haven't already lost all their viewers
>through confusion in the market, that is).
>
>The mistake of confusing the consumer by offering them two different
>products that appear to be the same is something they teach in 1st year
>economics 101. So in that respect, I'm going to need you to pay for a
>barrage of print and broadcast ads to educate the masses. And buy back
>stock from and educate all the retailers.
>
>You will also have to pay for some sort of extended press campaign to
>attempt to save face.
>
>The above is a good start. We still haven't tackled fixed installations,
>antenna buy-back/replacement, recouping of lost installation costs, and
>a whole bunch more.
>
>How many pennies do you have left in your piggy bank now?
>
>Cheers
>Kon
>
>
>
>
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