[opendtv] Re: White paper from CEA
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 12:03:26 -0400
At 4:46 PM -0700 10/21/05, Richard Hollandsworth wrote:
>Analog shutdown will affect cable systems as well as on-the-air, as
>was discussed in this thread:
>http://hdtv.forsandiego.com/messages/2/3749.html#POST19781
>Analog channel sources will soon dry up as all of the SAT, CATV and
>OTA systems go ALL DIGITAL.
>
>Most of the cable systems have announced plans for simulcasting
>analog channels on their digital tier, in preparation for an ALL
>DIGITAL cable system.
Not exactly. Remember, cable offers TWO analog tiers:
Basic/Lifeline
Extended Basic
The Basic tier is primarily the OTA analog channels that are required
for must carry/retransmission consent. With the Cox Cable system in
Gainesville the basic tier also includes TBS and a few shopping
channels.
What is likely to move to digital soon are the extended basic
channels, which are not available OTA, but cost a bunch of money in
subscriber fees that have been extorted through retransmission
consent agreements. In Gainesville most of the lower 500 MHz of
spectrum is still analog, except for the upstream channels that at
the low end of the cable spectrum. We get about 70 analog channels,
of which about 20 are the core basic/lifeline service. That means
that the rest - about 300 MHz of spectrum could be converted to
digital, enabling hundreds of new digital channels and/or on demand
services.
What I expect is that most cable systems will continue to offer the
basic tier channels in analog, either at a very low price as they do
today, or for free, to get people into their systems. Since all
legacy sets can tune to these analog channels there will be no need
to provision a STB unless the subscriber decides to pay more to get
more content. Since they already go past most of the homes that still
rely on OTA service, the cost to give away 20 analog channels will be
very low, with the potential to increase revenues as some of these
former OTA viewers become paying subscribers.
Bottom line, analog television is not likely to go away in this
decade...it's just moving.
Regards
Craig
P.S. A digital receiver is no longer adequate. PVR functionality is
becoming a standard feature for subscriber based systems. I expect it
will be standard on DVB-T STBs within a year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Other related posts:
