[opendtv] Re: If you can't beat 'em...
- From: "Albert Manfredi" <bert22306@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2006 15:04:32 -0400
Kon Wilms wrote:
>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.
But IMO there are several factors to consider in this:
1. PBS does exactly that. Although of course they don't air commercials
during programs, so maybe they don't count.
2. For non-sports material, you should be able to do a decent job with two
HD programs over the same 6 MHz channel, even with H.261 compression.
Especially if you transmit VBR.
3. Whether the extra-interest subchannel is HD or SD, this doesn't change
the general suggestion that OTA broadcasters could air interesting OTA-only
content. Then, as Tom says, just maybe the umbillical services' customers
will insist their service provider include this subchannel in their
offerings. Or their customers would bypass the umbillical service to get it.
And the OTA broadcaster can then decide whether to continue airing the extra
channel OTA, or try something new OTA.
>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.
That too. I don't think these are mutually exclusive possibilities. The
reason I brought up the pornography angle is only to stay away from
digressions. You know, arguing about whether some specific type of
additional content would attract eyeballs or not. That's what usually
happens with these discussions. If people don't agree with one's *example*
of additional content, presumably the whole concept is flawed. I doubt
anyone in their right mind would think pornography would *not* sell.
>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.
Some program material can be compatible with live viewing, while being
optimized for non-real-time viewing. I think there's a whole spectrum of
possibilities. The interesting point of the KFC ad and the Janet Jackson
program was that they were optimized for non-real-time digestion, even
though the programs on the air worked just fine with real-time viewing. I
think this suggests that OTA broadcasters are not stuck in the past. And the
great thing is, affiliates appear to have a lot of latitude in what they use
their additional b/s for, so one would expect much experimentation to take
place as polling results like Tom's start emerging (to peak the
broadcasters' interest in their digital tier).
Bert
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