[opendtv] Re: News: The death of Cable TV

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 22:24:34 -0400

At 2:26 PM -0500 11/4/10, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:

Did you invent this, Craig?

Here is what the article said:
"In-Stat suggests if the next generation of Google TV devices includes an ATSC tuner and digital recording capabilities, 'that solves the blocking problem.' By law, however, the Sony HD sets have ATSC tuners, so that's not the issue. The recent retransmission dispute between Fox and Cablevision is an object lesson."
This paragraph says exactly what I said. The ATSC tuner is mandated by law; it is already there. 

But you left out the object lesson Bert.
"When Fox yanked the signals of three of its TV stations from Cablevision systems, most of the cable operator's 3 million subscribers could have tuned them in over the air. But most did not, and instead balked at not having them on cable. Content copyright fees are increasingly platform specific."
Despite the fact that most consumers had an ATSC tuner, they chose NOT to use them.
First point: no, Google boxes do not have ATSC tuners. They are Internet appliances, not TV receiver appliances, so there's nothing to mandate an ATSC tuner.
There IS NO Google box Bert. Google TV is a hardware/software platform that is integrated in the TV, just like an ATSC tuner. It works with whatever signal source you are using, OTA tuner, cable DBS, etc. 


 Aside from that, what is that paragraph really saying?
If you have a Sony TV, for example, that cuts out Fox programming from (a) the Cablevision "broadcast" TV spectrum you are subscribe to, and (b) the Cablevision Internet broadband pipe you are also subscribed to, can you please explain to me how that can prevent the Sony TV set from receiving Fox as an ATSC broadcast?
DUH. Yes you can use the integrated TV tuner to view the Fox OTA broadcast. That was the point the author was making. The object lesson was that most consumers DID NOT want to go to the trouble to put up an antenna so they could use the integrated tuner. Most consumers were PAYING for a service that delivers this content to their TV via a WIRE; they were upset that the signal they are paying for was interrupted.
The only way your Sony TV can possibly have the Fox OTA signal blocked is for *Sony* to create that filter. Fox cannot do this on transmission, as ATSC and DVB-T are defined. 

Correct.
But they CAN ( and did) block the integrated Google TV hardware/software from accessing the Fox.com and Hulu.com websites. In fact they blocked these services for EVERY Cablevision broadband customer, whether or not they were also cable subscribers. And they are STILL blocking access to these Internet services via TVs with integrated Google TV hardware/software. 

Regards
Craig


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