[opendtv] Re: DTT tuner design
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2007 11:24:07 -0400
At 11:15 AM -0700 7/6/07, johnwillkie wrote:
So, you think the begging for business (I guess they can't find paying
customers) of a cable company begging for business (Digital Max, ect: Cox's
biggest system is San Diego) is equitable to the news/public affairs (no
begging) voice of a TV station that asks for nothing but time.
No. I think one is the proper use of promotion to capture new
customers and/or to upgrade the services for existing customers. The
other is called a newscast.
Broadcasters have been doing news and public affairs since day one.
News was the core of their business for decades, but that business is
in severe decline and there are too many outlets in each market for
all to survive - akin to the good old days when most major cities had
multiple daily newspapers.
Public affairs has always been a loss leader for broadcasters - it
rarely generates any audience and is generally considered to be "a
pain" that goes along with the good stuff that comes with a broadcast
license.
On the other hand, cable also has public affairs programming that is
part of their local franchise agreements - also a loss leader. In
most communities they also operate public access studios that can be
used for public affairs programming.
I wish I had seen you say this in meatspace so I could watch the
contortions.
Did you invent that term?
In time of emergency, do you turn to a Cox cable barker channel, HBO, or do
you tune to one of those local broadcast news channels with the "names you
can't remember, the personalities you can't forget?" I suspect that you are
somewhat rare in your area from not being to identify these folk.
I tune to a local radio station that does a much better job than ANY
local TV broadcaster for most of the info I need (and it generally
operates throughout a Hurricane - it's difficult to watch TV when the
power is out. I also use my computer to get the visual info, although
it too goes down 9actually the DSL) when the power is off. And yes i
do watch the TV also during these storms. There is the weather
channel that goes 24/7 along with all of the news channels. The BEST
"local" weather info comes out of a station in Orlando that
specializes in weather 9 this is our "local" NBC affiliate.
To be honest, the most important role that TV plays when we have a
hurricane here is to fulfill the appetite for voyeurism. They
typically do a good job of showing all of the stuff that blew away or
blew down during the storm.
What is groing rare is younger people that watch local TV news.
John Willkie, who agrees that cable is relentless, just like one would
expect of an unprofitable service with encroaching competitors.
You really need to get over this misconception that cable is
unprofitable. Even if everything else was break even, just managing
the massive cash flow is a highly profitable business...
And everything else is far from break even, although I will admit
that the profit margins are not as dramatic as those for local
gatekeepers ...errr broadcasters.
Regards
Craig
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