Whereas with NTSC, only one program could be carried per channel,
ATSC can support as many as five or six.
This significantly changes the economic equation, making it easier for
niche
programs
to lease bits, rather than buying a transmitter and building a tower.
Most of the LP stations have, thus far, not participated in the DTV
transistion, probably cuz there weren't enough channels for double
NTSC/ATSC
assignments.
In 2009, when Analog LP stations transition to DTV, they could team
together
to share
several different subprograms on a single transmitter, as we already
see in
L.A.
(KVEA-DT, KXLA-DT, KVMD-DT).
Since DTV stations can be paced into nearly EVERY channel position across
the
greater metro area, that's a LOT of available program capacity....
Related question: what's going to happen to all of that expensive
hardware
when current Analog
and duplicate DTV stations transition to their final configuration and
nearly half the
transmitters/towers in America become "excess".....
I'm predicting a bunch are simply shut down and an even bigger bunch
will be
upgraded
to carry some of the current LP programs plus a bunch of new niche
stations....
And perhaps even delivery of movies (HD-DVD, p*orn, whatever) via
encrypted
MPEG4 streams...
holl_ands
===============================================
Cliff Benham <flyback1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Richard Hollandsworth
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 4:51 PM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: CableLabs Proposes Specifications for OTA
Reception
in Cable Boxes
It would also give cable systems "cover" to argue against Multicast Must
Carry.
They could argue that there was NO NEED to carry dozens (hundreds?) of
religious/anti-religious/girl scouts/pop warner/shopping/high school
sports/etc channels--just connect an antenna....
holl_ands
[Cliff Benham] Although there are some religious OTA broadcasters, please
tell me where there are any OTA analog or digital broadcasts of
"anti-religious/girl scouts/pop warner/shopping/high school sports/etc
channels" in the US.
To the best of my knowledge they are all on cable or satellite. But
NOT OTA.
There is only one "free speech" channel and that is carried by Dish,
but not
by DirecTV.
There is only one ARTS channel which runs free 24 hours a day on
C-Band, but
is not carried by many broadcasters unless it is for a half hour at
1AM, or
later and almost never, even for short segments by cable. I installed
a 2.4
meter antenna and purchased a 4DTV receiver just so I could watch Classic
Arts Showcase whenever I want.
My point is that niche programming is only somewhat available on cable
[for
a price] or on DBS [for a price].
It is not available for free anywhere, the ARTS Channel excepted, but
that's
assuming you have spent a grand or so on an antenna and receiver..
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