[opendtv] Re: DTT tuner design

  • From: "johnwillkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2007 12:54:18 -0700

I'm sorry, on MY PLANET producing and airing a local public affairs program
(not required by any law or regulation) isn't comparable to airing a crappy
little public access tape that hasn't been vetted by anybody (except that it
doesn't contain obscenities) on a crappy little channel that the cable
company is required to provide as a condition of getting local and federal
approval.

Oh, and public affairs on TV isn't a loss-leader.  A loss leader is where
you cut a price to drive traffic so that people will buy other offerings at
close to list price.

Perhaps you don't realize that viewers pay TV stations nothing (aside from a
few people who pay a pittance to public tv stations) and that nobody watches
public affairs programs (I am one of the few), and so there is no dribble on
to later programs.

The cable pub acx channels aren't loss leaders, since NOBODY watches them
save for the producers.  They are mere 'table stakes.'

John Willkie

-----Mensaje original-----
De: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] En
nombre de Craig Birkmaier
Enviado el: Saturday, July 07, 2007 8:24 AM
Para: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Asunto: [opendtv] Re: DTT tuner design

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
 

 
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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: