[opendtv] Re: B&C: CTA Warns of ATSC 3.0 'Chaos' Without Modulation Standard
- From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2017 21:40:22 -0400
On Oct 23, 2017, at 4:05 PM, Manfredi, Albert E <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Here is something Craig doesn't understand:
"'Unlike in the wireless context, where a small handful of nationwide
carrier-providers are able to dictate to phone manufacturers what technology
to incorporate into devices,' CTA told the chairman and commissioners, 'no
single broadcaster or broadcast group has the requisite market power to
dictate to television manufacturers what technology to incorporate into
television sets.'"
Absolutely true. An unwalled broadcast scheme cannot work without an FCC, or
similar, to set the standards.
What crap. How the hell is it possible that we have OTT streaming video WITHOUT
the FCC setting the standards Bert?
What is worse, is that the carriers no longer dictate the standards that
manufacturers support - ESPECIALLY when new standards and incremental
enhancements are introduced by a carrier.
In reality Qualcomm has more influence over phone manufacturers (and the
carriers) than the telecoms do over the phone manufacturers.
For example, Apple typically does not support the bleeding edge deployments
until a new standard is widely available, while Samsung tends to help Qualcomm
push the latest enhancements in their chips when these enhancements may only
work in a few markets. This is happening at the moment with some of the LTE
advanced capabilities that are only offered by one or two carriers in a handful
of markets.
As for broadcasters, the real problem is that they have been protected by the
FCC, which has set standards that have lived many years past their useful
lives. ATSC 1.0 is such a standard today, just as NTSC should have been
replaced decades earlier.
What you are saying is the equivalent of Microsoft needed a federal agency to
set standards for PCs.
I wonder if the author even knows that Sinclair is willing to subsidize the
tuners needed to support the ATSC 3.0 modulation standard?
Failing that, you'd have multiple broadcast schemes to support different
vendors, and then you'd still need an FCC to partition the frequencies, and
you'd be wasting a ton of spectrum.
Which is EXACTLY what happened around the world because of government
regulators working with manufacturers to protect the markets in their regions.
NTSC, PAL, SECAM, 50 Hz, 60 Hz, DVB, ATSC - and the beat goes on...
Yet somehow, Netflix is distribution its content over-the-top, around the
world, without a single government regulator telling them how to do it.
And yes Bert, we ARE wasting a ton of spectrum - it is absurd to continue to
allocate the amount of spectrum used for TV when only a very small percentage
of the population even uses the service.
Maybe, just maybe, some smart business people could figure out how to make
better use of that spectrum - but we have the minority on the FCC complaining
that a company that WANTS TO DO THIS, could reach 70% of the U.S. market,
while Netflix can reach more than 70% of the WORLD.
Much like the cellcos do, each with their own slices of spectrum. Stating the
obvious, but we have seen how obvious concepts seem to elicit arguments ad
infinitum.
But the telcos ARE NOT doing what you say. They are working together to deploy
new standards, sharing spectrum with each other (AND carriers who don’t own
spectrum), and working with third parties to share infrastructure such as cell
towers.
But more to the point of the article, the term "voluntary" apparently needs
to be more precisely defined. Voluntary means voluntary. It is voluntary for
broadcasters to use ATSC 3.0, and it is voluntary for CE vendors to build
ATSC 3.0 into their products. The CTA is just now realizing that this could
lead to an infinitely long transition period? Think HD Radio.
No!
Think Roku, Apple TV, Amazon FireTV, Google TV, and the reality that all of the
content in question here can now be viewed on our smartphones, tablets and PCs.
Yes, after 15 years, almost invisible on store shelves, no hint that a
"transition" to HD Radio is even taking place. It is more likely that we will
be transition away from HD Radio, long before analog FM and AM broadcasting
ends. Same applies here. The NAB and Sinclair have been stipulating
"voluntary" very emphatically, and the CTA claims it is too, and yet, this:
Radio is dying too, but still has solid marketshare when people are mobile -
i.e in vehicles. About ten days ago I wanted to listen to an FSU football
b=game while traveling. Coverage through their radio station network is
sketchy, and non existent in many markets. So I just streamed it from the FSU
athletics website...
Saturday I was supporting a new beer festival north of Gainesville - since I
was not driving, I WATCHED the FSU game on my cellphone via my DirecTV Now
subscription.
Please explain how FCC regulation played ANY ROLE in my ability to do this?
"CTA says the transition can only be a success 'if manufacturers and the
American public have certainty that the television sets and other reception
devices they manufacture (in the case of the former) or purchase (in the case
of the latter) are capable of adequately receiving ATSC 3.0 signals.'"
Whoa. How is this not asking for a tuner mandate?
Ya think?
These folks love mandated standards - they own all the IP and want to make its
use mandatory. No surprise, as this business model a=has been around since the
beginning of broadcasting - i.e. before the FCC was created.
The single-minded formula-think mantra of no regulations makes it unlikely
that a transition to ATSC 3.0 would occur, and unlikely that this FCC will
ever create another tuner mandate.
You are correct that there will not be another tuner mandate. The last mandate
was a massive payoff to the CTA and the CE companies, forcing most consumers to
buy something they have NEVER USED.
And please don’t try to tell us it became a noise level cost - it was not worth
two cents.
The Michael Powell FCC, on the other hand, even if of the same general
political affiliation as the current FCC majority, was way more realistic,
less slavishly tied to dogma, and managed to get something done.
What did Powell get done Bert?
Oh wait. He ran the FCC when the cellular industry exploded (in a very positive
way), and the unregulated Internet grew massively, becoming a critical part of
our lives. All he had to do was WATCH it happen.
There is one positive aspect of where we are today versus 1995, when we urged
the FCC to approve ONLY the modulation and transport standards for ATSC 1.0.
Now the CTA is ON asking the FCCto mandate the modulation standard...
REAL PROGRESS!
Regards
Craig
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