[opendtv] Re: An Unsteady Future for Broadcast
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:24:02 -0500
At 6:18 PM -0600 11/22/09, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
\nd local broadcasters ALSO have the newly acquired possibility of
offering a wider array of programs on their allotted frequency
channels. The oft-repeated "analysis," that tries to explain away
OTA broadcast by harking back to the "good old days" when people
only had three choices for TV content, is bogus. It was true decades
ago, but even OTA doesn't need to be that way now. So why do
articles like this one keep mentioning that anachronism? E.g., I get
more than 30 streams now OTA, and that's with several stations that
can't be bothered to transmit more than one stream.
Seems to me that like anything else, those involved in OTA TV have
to be interested in its survival. My bet is that if FOTA TV does
disappear, we'll start seeing all of the TV over Internet stations
also going to a subscription or pay per view formula. A situation
that only some in the TV industry can possibly love.
Bert
Wake UP!
Comcast is not trying to buy NBC for their broadcast network. I've
already posted stories suggesting that one of the first things they
would do is to sell the NBC broadcast stations.
Dale is correct - the networks no longer need broadcast TV. They do
need a serious infusion of creativity; other than a handful of shows,
Broadcast TV is becoming the vast wasteland that FCC Chairman Newton
Minnow posited in 1961.
Your 30 channels are NOT the stuff that the American viewing public
is most interested in. Much of it is duplicated on several channels,
and NONE OF IT is the cable networks that the majority of people in
this country are now watching.
TV stations must pay for the content they air - and yes they now pay
the networks rather than the other way around. If the networks pull
their content from local broadcasters, local stations will have
nothing left to air except the limited local news they produce and
syndicated programming. Unfortunately, this is probably not enough
for them to survive. Local news audiences are in severe decline -
most of the remaining audience is older than 55.
Broadcasting can survive if it is aggressive about changing the
underlying business model. To do this they must redeploy transmission
assets to focus on mobile and SPECTRUM EFFICIENCY, as they will
probably lose half of the spectrum they still occupy.
I would note that cable now operates a significant number of 24/7
local news channels. There is much value in localism, but it does not
need to be Free OTA to reach the masses.
Regards
Craig
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