[opendtv] Re: If you can't beat 'em...


Kon Wilms wrote:
 > If OTA wants to differentiate themselves they need to start using the
 > spare bandwidth to datacast content and seriously get into the
 > harddisk-based STB market. This is not rocket science.
 >
 > You don't need to send new content. Send old content. People *do*
 > actually watch this.
 >
 > This whole live-broadcast-tv-only mechanism currently used by OTA is
 > legacy and will be their doom, no matter how many codecs and modulation
 > schemes you swap out.

There may be a compromise between live and disk storage.  Content 
providers may balk at anything that can sit too long on a drive 
somewhere.  But prime-ish content might be available if it only lived 
for a day or two.  That could be done with expiration dates but even 
better if the keys never lived on the drive at all but instead had to be 
broadcast live (every so often) OTA.  And the way to do this all 
economically is probably not with a special receiver box but instead as 
a special add-on to an otherwise standard OTA PVR box.  The features 
just overlap too much to pay for them twice.

Imagine the daily menu consisted of premium movies mastered in high 
quality in AVC or VC1 960x540 at about 3 mbps including audio.  With 
care the apparent quality here could match network HD fare but, stealing 
15 mbps 20 hours/day, would allow up to 50 different 2 hour movies every 
day if they really wanted.  At any given time (except prime time) up to 
5 of these would even be playing in real time if anybody cared.  But 
they would also live in Tivo land for another day or few.

And I agree it is not best to compete with prime time.  But the networks 
are mostly abandoning everything else so it is fair game.

Or, you could insert the same prime channel network and local 
commercials as PVR material played if you wanted advertising supported 
content and wanted the advertisers on your side.  After all, this would 
now be timely, if not real time, material so time sensitive ad's would 
still apply.

And all this would be for a single broadcaster.

- Tom





>>If they were willing to challenge both cable and the networks then this 
>>could easily be done by offering some high def movie or other 
>>interesting offering at the same time there was something boring and low 
>>def on the network.  At these times the majority of bandwidth would go 
>>to the sub-channel leaving the "primary" network channel in SDTV and low 
>>bandwidth.  This could establish either the desire of consumers to watch 
>>OTA or a desire by cable companies to carry some of the sub-channels.
>>
>>Of course, this requires content.
> 
> 
> No-one in their right mind would shoot themselves in the foot and negate
> their own content by running prime time HD movies against regular SD
> programming. Good luck getting advertising money on the SD channel when
> you're doing that - zero eyeballs on the SD channel. You may as well
> turn the SD channel down to MPEG frames and force-tune receivers to the
> movie subchannel.
> 
> If OTA wants to differentiate themselves they need to start using the
> spare bandwidth to datacast content and seriously get into the
> harddisk-based STB market. This is not rocket science.
> 
> You don't need to send new content. Send old content. People *do*
> actually watch this.
> 
> This whole live-broadcast-tv-only mechanism currently used by OTA is
> legacy and will be their doom, no matter how many codecs and modulation
> schemes you swap out. 
> 
> I fear however that OTA will never 'get it'. It will take a monumental
> shake-up to move stations out of this current legacy model. 
> 
> Cheers
> Kon
> 
>  
>  
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