[opendtv] Re: News: FCC's Martin Floats Leased Multicast Must-Carry Proposal

At 4:29 PM -0500 2/27/07, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:

Tom Barry wrote:


 I don't think it is possible to compete with cable if you
 depend upon them (and sat) for 85%+ of your distribution.


Not to be too repetitious here, but that's households, not sets. Big
difference.
Not really Bert. You are buying into the NAB/MSTV hype that only one or a few of the sets in a home with multichannel service are connected to that service. This is largely untrue. There may be a few old sets in many homes that are not connected, but for the most part they are not viewed either. There have been many studies to support this.
What Tom wrote is absolutely true. Broadcasters long ago gave up on competing with cable. Now when they get into a retrans battle they tell customers to hook up with a DBS system.
It should be obvious why. The other 15% of homes are NOT paying a monthly fee for their signals. 




 I can see why some think it is hardly worth the electricity
 to power antennas anymore.


To me, that's a bit like saying that restaurants should only serve red
meat. After all, "most people" eat red meat, so why bother with anything
else? Eat red meat or don't go out to restaurants.


You've got it almost perfectly backwards.
The broadcasters are in the "Red Meat" business. They are the ones who are targeting the mass audience rather than niches. They are the ones with the deep pockets to pay the huge rights fees for the NFL and other sports franchises. They are the ones who are limiting your choice in programming by hoarding the spectrum.
People choose to subscribe to a multichannel service so they can see the entire menu... 

LITTERALLY!

Just hit the menu button on the remote...

Regards
Craig


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