[opendtv] Re: Why aren't there more converter boxes?

At 6:16 PM -0800 1/24/07, Kon Wilms wrote:
Too true, and well said. :-) TV stations just don't have the business structure to be a CE support/distribution/sales facility. There is no profit in all the infrastructure required to sell a couple boxes to your own subscribers, while competing with Best Buys etc. Branding that little STB even if it is some text or a sticker on the frontpanel or an insert with the documentation does not come cheap. And what is the benefit of selling a couple branded STBs? Not like viewers do not know your name already...
As a sidenote WRAL actually did try selling datacasting cards (the old Teralogics). They spun that group off real fast to a separate business entity.
What you say about business structure is true. This is the primary reason that broadcasters are all too happy to rely upon retransmission consent and let their competitors handle the customer support functions. I would too if I could get my competitors to collect money from every consumer and give it to me.
But you are not correct about the TV industry being able to create a platform and the infrastructure to to support it. This is a business decision, nothing more. If retrans consent were overturned, broadcasters would have little choice but to compete, and would be placed in the "terrible" position of having to take some of their billions in profits to re-invent their business model. 

Regards
Craig

P.S. Actually there is another choice. They could just go away.


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