Craig Birkmaier wrote: > As for minority access, it does not exist today. Almost all of the > channels that serve minorities are owned by the media conglomerates. I don't know that ownership has much to do with the point. The question remains whether a marginal channel is more likely to remain available if it is bundled with more successful channels, rather than if it has to be able to pay its own freight. The conglom can show "good faith," or "good citizenship," or what have you, and have those marginal channels forced on cable systems as part of a bundle. > The real problem with the current system of bundling programming is > that NOBODY has access, unless they are willing to work through the > conglomerates. The access you're talking about is another matter. You're talking about getting on the system on your own, as you might on You Tube. For that, better use the Internet. >> Including, for example, the "starving producer" productions that >> Craig keeps lamenting about. > > Which productions are you talking about Bert? For example, ABC 7 in this market transmits something called "Local Point TV" on 7-3. It's a quirky bunch of locally produced short videos. I doubt they get huge viewership, and I seriously doubt that WJLA-DT would transmit that channel if it were by-subscription only (a la carte). But as it is bundled with the other ABC 7 channels, TV surfers will occasionally have fun with that content. > Ala carte is going to happen, when it is cheaper to buy the programs > you want than to subscribe to a multichannel TV service. That could happen anytime now, over the Internet. I'll bet you a whole lot of bread that the demand for TV content at "wholesale" quantity and price will remain, however. Just like people talk a lot about how wonderful quaint neighborhood stores are, but then just check out the Walmart and Target parking lots. Americans like quantity buys. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.