[opendtv] Re: White paper from CEA

At 12:11 AM -0700 10/29/05, Tony Neece wrote:
>Craig your vehemence toward the broadcasters is pretty foolish.  For =
>many
>decades the broadcasters provided a service the public loved and needed.

They still can, but they are not interested in doing so because they 
can make more money by using political influence to get their 
competitors to collect money from subscribers for them.

To be fair, there are three distinct groups of broadcasters involved with this.

1. The media conglomerates that operate the broadcast networks and 
their O&O stations;
2. The large station groups NOT owned by the media conglomerates that 
have the rest of the stations in the top 50 markets;
3. Smaller broadcast groups and independents.

While #1 and #2 do not always see eye-to-eye, they both understand 
the value of the protections they receive from political 
gerrymandering - specifically re-transmission consent. The third 
group is scared to death; their profitability is largely dependent on 
the charity of #1, which would snuff them out in a heartbeat, if the 
politicians and the courts would let them.


>What makes you think people chose to tune in TV because of broadcasters =
>who
>"lavish millions each year upon the politicians"?

I don't think this. People chose to tune in because it was a 
wonderful new service that they could pull from the air for nothing 
more than the cost of a receiver. The radio stars moved to TV and 
then new forms of entertainment, appropriate for the small screen 
were developed.

For nearly 30 years OTA broadcasts were the ONLY GAME IN TOWN. There 
was virtually no alternative until cable started to offer expanded 
choice and the VCR enabled packaged media.

Where things went into the ditch was when the big media companies 
were cut loose to do and say what they wanted. When they turned to 
the politicians to protect them when they started to face real 
competition.

>
>The broadcasters and their millions have had NOTING to do with the delay =
>of
>the analog shut-off.  It is congress that has delayed it, not because =
>"they
>(broadcasters) lavish millions each year upon the politicians", but =
>because
>legislators do not wish to be voted out of office for taking TV away =
>from
>millions of their constituents.  If inexpensive converters were =
>available to
>the public the broadcasters would already have shut off their analog
>transmitters. =20

This is absurd. It was not the politicians who gutted the transition 
in 1997...at least not directly. They were simply bowing to the 
wishes of the most powerful lobby in Washington , the NAB.

Yes the politicians DO CARE very much about broadcasters. It is the 
one place where they can be assured of tons of free coverage in their 
districts between elections. TV is a medium for social control, and 
they fully understand how important broadcasters are in delivering 
the kool-aid to the masses.

They are not worried about the backlash from Aunt Emily, since they 
know that the NTSC service will remain on the air until the courts 
finally throw out must carry and retrans consent.

>
>There is no advantage to broadcasters to continue NTSC / analog =
>transmission
>other than that PEOPLE CAN RECEIVE IT!!  And that is also how most cable
>head-ends get it too!!

Well, we do agree that NTSC works better than ATSC.

Most cable head ends get direct feeds from broadcasters - why risk 
the transmitter going off, or sacrifice picture quality. But DTV 
broadcasts do provide an excellent STL links to cable head ends, and 
many stations have put DTV receivers in cable facilities to improve 
the delivered video quality.

>
>Craig, I'm sorry to say your points sound like so much of the naive
>anti-establishment ranting I got tired of during the 60's.

Perhaps you are right about this. It is a testament to the power of 
broadcasters, that they have been able to fend off real competition 
for more than 40 years.

Regards
Craig
 
 
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