[opendtv] Re: Fewer than 2 Million have OTA DTV in US
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2006 06:41:36 -0500
At 12:17 PM -0800 12/24/06, John Willkie wrote:
I believe I answered this in advance. Local-into-local in 1999 "unleashed"
the DBS business; access to local channels provides much of the draw for
cable.
The DBS business already had 10 million subs before they began to
offer Local-into-local in major markets. But this does not diminish
the importance of the broadcast networks as part of the overall TV
landscape. Many of the first ten million lived in rural areas where
cable was not available, and OTA service was either poor or
non-existent. Fortunately, this means that they could qualify for the
network east and west coast stations (New York and LA.). Local meant
nothing to these subscribers - in fact, like many others who managed
to get the network feeds from the coasts using pirated smart cards,
they preferred this arrangement.
Why? Because it gave them two shots at watching the network programs.
This notion that "localism" is important is tied directly the the
market model we use in the U.S. , and the protectionism of those
markets. The reality is that the content is the same in every market,
with the exception of news, and the occasional public affairs
program. The stuff people really want is coming from the networks,
and program syndicators.
When it comes down to the wire on a retransmission consent agreement,
the station typically picks a time of year when they have the most
leverage. If the network carries football, chances are good that they
will threaten to withhold their signal during football season. And to
be fair, there are still enough high quality first run programs on
the networks to keep people interested, even if they watch non
broadcast channels most of the time.
Bottom line, if people could get the localized info they need, they
could care less if the station is operated locally. The weather
channel has been doing this since it started, with a computer at each
cable head end to handle the local inserts. Sinclair demonstrated how
easy it is to make news and weather stories look like they are local,
despite the fact that many of these stories came from the News
Central studios in Maryland.
Our "local Fox affiliate (in Ocala) is operated by Meredith
Broadcasting from studios in Lake Mary, where they run a triopoly
that includes the Orlando market. Left to the marketplace to decide,
we would see broadcasting consolidate into a handful of regional
operations centers where "localized" content would be generated and
inserted into the various feeds to the local transmitters.
But the marketplace is not allowed to work in one of the most
important aspects of modern society - the ability to control the flow
of information to the masses.
Regards
Craig
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