Worse, even if broadcasters offered lots of good HD content most any cable broadband customer can get the same stations with any QAM cable ready HDTV or PC card for an incremental fee of maybe -$5 to $5. If you don't need the cable HD box then the network stations are usually offered in unencrypted QAM on the lifeline cable package and bundled with broadband for practically nothing (or less). And if you like the cable PVR deal then HD is usually bundled that way too.
And I'm not sure whether broadcasters prefer their viewers use antennas vs the above. In many ways it is simpler and more profitable to just let cable support them, especially if you can get paid for it.
Of course in the long run this is likely to devalue the OTA franchise politically and cause some more encroachments on the spectrum, relative interference worries, exclusive local rights, net affiliate contract renegotiations, etc.
- Tom Don Moore wrote:
Tom Barry wrote:I'm not sure either CE manufacturers or broadcasters are willing to spend much to ensure OTA is good enough to keep people from migrating to cable.That's the 64 Million Dollar Question?Unfortunately the answer is CONTENT. Once people have invested in High Definition Monitors, they eventually discover they need High Definition Service. They can spend upwards are $300 to have an outside antenna installed to receive 3 or 4 channels, offering approximately 2 to 3 hours of HD content a day OR they can spend an additional $6 to $20 a month to add the HD Tier on their cable for 10 or more 24 hours a day of HD Content.I have seen these people. They will watch flowers bloom in HD or cut off their television set before they watch standard definition.Cable and Satellite took the lead in HD Content delivery and broadcasters have less than 18 months to recover or become irrelevant to the consumer.People don't care about tuners - they want a solution. Broadcasters don't offer a solution - they offer a kit.---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
-- Tom Barry trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
