[opendtv] Re: The Transition Up North

  • From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 08:53:24 -0400

Albert Manfredi wrote:
> Craig Birkmaier wrote:
>  
>   
>>> Why don't Canadian stores just sell the decent and cheap
>>> STBs that were subsidized here? Even without subsidies,
>>> they went for $50 to $60 or so. There must be some left
>>> over, no?
>>>       
>> What makes you think they don't?
>>     
>  
> I was wondering, because the article (or the previous one) had made the point 
> that they don't have the coupon program there, implying (or maybe I just 
> misinterpreted) that many people would have their TVs go dark. Even without 
> coupon program, those govt cheese STBs now ought to be a steal these days.
>  
>   
>> Makes one wonder what would have happened in the U.S. if the
>> government simply stood back and let the marketplace work this
>> out. As you often point out, the cost for an ATSC tuner is no
>> longer a significant factor when buying a big screen TV.
>>     
>  
>   
>> P.S. While looking for ATSC tuners in Canada I noticed that all of
>> the retailers sell cable/DBS STBs. Apparently Canada has had more
>> success in opening up the market for these boxes, although it looks
>> like the market is dominated by the same manufacturers who make
>> boxes for the U.S. cable market.
>>     
>  
> My take on this has long been what your P.S note alludes to as well.
>  
> I have no doubt what would have happened if the tuner mandate had not 
> occurred, Craig. None at all. That's why I get so irked when people complain 
> about the tuner mandate, instead of complaining about the inevitable 
> alternative.
>  
> Here is what happens everywhere EXCEPT in the US. With or without a tuner 
> mandate, every other DTV country has migrated to integrated sets. But more 
> importantly than that, every other country has a wide choice of unwalled 
> products for consumers. As you point out, EVEN Canada. And to boot, the same 
> manufacturers as here (and by the way, also the same as in Europe). That 
> should give a clue. Remember all those excuses a few years ago about how ATSC 
> tuners were "too expensive" and that's why products weren't available? 
> Remember how I always rejected that excuse?
>  
> What would have happened here? It's simple. No clearQAM or OTA-capable sets, 
> no clearQAM or OTA-capable recording devices, and *clearly* no hint of 
> CableCard or anything approaching that concept. Of course, no generic 
> cable/DBS STBs either. We have none of those anyway. Everyone would have been 
> forced into walled gardens, using exclusively non-standard, proprietary 
> rental hardware. (You have said in the past, "the MVPDs prefer it that way.")
>  
> I have a really hard time looking at the Powell FCC as the bad guy, and the 
> special interests at work here in the US as the good guys. I doubt even you 
> would advocate that ISPs should force people to rent their non-standard PCs 
> as the only way to access the Internet, right?
>  
> Why do special interests have such an easy time of it here? Why do the 
> pundits so often seem oblivious of this, even arguing that standardized TVs 
> and recording devices should not exist, because people use the special 
> interest's non-standard money sink hardware instead? Why do consumers cave in 
> so readily? Honestly, I don't understand.
>  
> Bert
>   
Possibly the USA has become just too successful a the intellectual
property game.  It has just been too successful and the game remains too
attractive.  There is just too much money in the game for much else.

And there is yet little consumer push back from the process.

If FM radios somehow become mandatory in cell phones do we think they
will somehow manage to include new patents on the process?  With
mandatory new licenses?

- Tom
 
 
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