[opendtv] Re: Broadband or Bust
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:41:14 -0400
At 4:17 PM -0500 7/13/10, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
TV is an application. You don't have to feel bad if you still watch
TV, among your other activities. I agree that most of the OTA
broadcasters could make better use of their multicast capacity,
which certainly qualifies as an extension to the TV service. Mobile
TV may or may not be a valuable extension, as the article on
MediaFLO suggests.
No TV is a means by which content can be consumed in the home. There
are many ways to feed the TV - it's roots as a broadcast receiver are
mostly history today. The TV most likely is connected to several
generations of CE products (VCR, DVD player, DVR) a cable or DBS box,
and one or more game consoles. And increasingly people are using
computing style devices to view photos, home videos, and various
download services fed via the Internet.
It is rather obvious that the big screen in the family room is
becoming a venue for GROUP consumption of entertainment AND
interactions including game playing, social networking and web
surfing (especially when a group of people are interested in the same
information, such as planning a family vacation.
The problem faced by broadcasters is that their business model is all
but dead. People only make appointments to watch live programming,
mostly sports, and the heavy commercial loads in most network
programs tend to further alienate the remaining audience.
NOBODY has demonstrated a strong consumer interest in delivering
traditional program length TV content to mobile platforms, although
devices like the iPAD could change this a bit.
One might ask why radio is still hanging in there. The obvious answer
is that radio has ALWAYS placed significant emphasis on serving a
mobile audience. The content can be consumed - without distraction -
while driving, and it is easy to receive radio on affordable portable
receivers.
TV broadcasters have no experience in creating content for a mobile
audience. The FLO experience points to a classic misjudgment made by
those trying to establish a new market for an established product;
consumers were not looking for mobile cable and another monthly
subscription fee. Even the satellite radio guys are struggling with
the subscriber fee issue.
The issue here was about saving spectrum with the use of SFNs.
That's all, Craig. It was not about someone's appreciation, or lack
thereof, of the TV networks.
Actually the issue is recovering spectrum that is not being used in a
manner that benefits the vast majority of citizens. SFNs are nothing
more than a technical implementation issue that is POSSIBLE to help
recover spectrum.
YOU are the one who keeps trying to save broadcasting by turning it
into a regional service. You are the one who keeps talking abut
moving away from the existing market-based business model. Can you
show me one person representing the NAB, MSTV, or any other broadcast
group who is suggesting a change in the business model to regional
broadcasting?
Clearly you can have separate markets with or without SFNs Bert. The
ONLY significant benefits of an SFN approach would be more efficient
use of the spectrum assigned to broadcasters, AND the ability to
develop services for sub markets within an existing market. It is
equally clear that broadcasters are rejecting this approach outright,
just as they are rejecting ANY attempts to recover more spectrum or
change the existing DTV technology they have deployed.
This is just a classic ride into the sunset strategy.
The article you posted says that the web or web 2.0 are a better
place to go for some content. Short local news clips can be consumed
even on the run, for example, whenever the user wants. Great. If
anything, this makes the point that regional TV networks, for
sit-down-in-living-room type of TV entertainment, make a whole lot
of sense. As much sense as the fact that all those TV shows you like
of MVPDs are NOT LOCAL.
Local content is not a big draw. Selling local commercials in
national content IS a big draw today. Broadcasters can do this and
keep the commercials relevant to a large market. Cable companies can
do this and keep the commercials relevant to a sub-market, or even a
neighborhood. The Internet can make commercials relevant to you, and
when you are mobile it can provide location-based information and
advertising. Most people can understand where this is going...
I could care less how the networks deliver their content. There are
at least four ways to access their content now (broadcast, cable,
DBS, Internet and packaged media). But I rarely watch any of their
stuff, so the only thing that matters to me is that we stop propping
up a dying industry and put the spectrum to better use.
Regards
Craig
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