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.. --------------------------------- Don't be flakey. Get Yahoo! Mail for Mobile and always stay connected to friends.