[opendtv] News: Signal Trouble at Freedom Tower
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:32:22 -0400
Hmmmmmmm...
Could it be that New York area broadcasters now understand that any
future they have may include the ability to deliver bits to things
that move, and that a distributed transmission network will:
1. Be cheaper to build
2. Provide better coverage and access for mobile devices
Regards
Craig
Signal Trouble at Freedom Tower
By Eliot Brown
April 7, 2009 | 12:00 p.m
A deal to broadcast 11 stations from atop the planned Freedom Tower
has fallen apart, seemingly bringing to a close years of
negotiations. According to multiple people familiar with discussions,
the Metropolitan Television Alliance, a consortium of local
television stations, last month informed the Port Authority that it
would not be proceeding with a deal for its members to broadcast from
an antenna atop the 102-story tower at the World Trade Center site.
The collapse of the deal further strains the finances of the Port
Authority at the Lower Manhattan site, as a basic agreement struck
with the MTVA in 2003 called for an annual rent of about $10 million,
on top of a $20 million payment to build the antenna. The Port
Authority owns the site and is building the Skidmore Owings &
Merrill-designed Freedom Tower, known officially as 1 World Trade
Center.
The agency is now considering whether to build a less costly
antenna-the price was north of $20 million-with the hopes of striking
a new deal later on, or to build a spire that has an aesthetic
function alone. Antenna deal or not, the agency still plans for a
spire atop the $3.1 billion tower to bring the building to its
symbolic height of 1,776 feet.
"This continues to be part of the design," Stephen Sigmund, a Port
Authority spokesman, said of the 408-foot spire.
The formation of the MTVA, along with the plan to put an antenna atop
the skyscraper, came after numerous stations went black following the
attacks of September 11, 2001, when the city's main television
broadcast antenna went down with World Trade Center Tower 1.
Since, technological changes in the industry-including a switch from
analog to digital broadcasting-have lessened the need for a new major
antenna in Lower Manhattan. Already, there are two buildings where
owners say they can accommodate all the television broadcasters in
the city on their antennas: Wien & Malkin's Empire State Building and
the Durst Organization's 4 Times Square.
"We've got a tremendously robust system," said Tony Malkin, president
of Wien & Malkin. "Every single broadcaster will be supported."
"We are open and ready for business-plug and play," said Jordan
Barowitz, a Durst spokesman.
Still, the MTVA's president, Saul Shapiro, said that there are
technical benefits of having an antenna at the World Trade Center,
and the group is still in talks with the Port Authority for a deal of
some sort. "We have not ruled out going to the Freedom Tower," he
said, declining to comment on specifics about the discussions.
However he did acknowledge that some MTVA member stations have pushed
back against a new downtown antenna, in part due to the large
investment needed.
"Some of the members have different finances, and are looking at
broadcast in a different way going forward," he said. "Locating at 1
World Trade was not the ideal solution for all the members."
ebrown@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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