[opendtv] Re: Canada's DTV Transition Off Track

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:50:10 -0500

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

> In the absence of a government mandate, the market place decided on the
> DTV transition in Canada. Rather than forcing broadcasters to move to
> DTV, the government let the market decide.

Simplistic, at best.

Many consumers dislike dealing with cable STBs. For instance, most consumers 
have never figured out how to make their own TV recording devices work with a 
cable STB. Many cable subscribers stayed on basic cable in the analog tier for 
exactly that reason, to avoid having to deal with the STB bottleneck. And no 
one knows how many that did finally accept the STB and rental recorders would 
much rather not have had to do so.

So the fact that "cable won" is only an indication that many consumers are much 
like door mats. Yes, they could be forced into a business model that they do 
not like. They wanted that extra programming bad enough that they capitulated.

The Powell FCC intent was to allow for DTV to do what analog TVs could do, and 
more. That is, allow direct connection of the customer's appliance (TV, 
recorder, whatever) to the cable or to an OTA antenna, and even allow encrypted 
cable signals to work without an STB. The fact that the MVPDs dragged their 
feet on their voluntary contribution to this plan is not an indication that 
consumers were perfectly happy to be so coerced.

It is ridiculous to suggest that coercing consumers into a business model that 
maximizes profits for the MVPD means that this is what the (doormat) consumer 
wants. Unless you are one of those who cheers when they can force someone to 
grudgingly accept a "least bad" option.

I'm not saying that this same dynamic exists in Canada. For one thing, I don't 
know that the CRTC ever suggested integrated sets with CableCard built in, or 
anything similar. Clearly, the CRTC has the same goal of pulling back the 700 
MHz spectrum, which is also their rationale for the DTV transition.

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.

Other related posts: