[opendtv] Re: Democrats Air Concerns About Analog Switchover
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2006 08:42:05 -0500
At 6:57 PM -0500 11/19/06, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
That's why I think all the talk about how great it would be to have
DVB-T receivers here in the US simply misses the point. Until we find
out precisely what it is that keeps innovative solutions away from the
DTT market in the US, any speculation about DVB-T in the US is idle
talk.
We know exactly what is keeping innovative solutions away from the
DTT market in the U.S. Bert. You simply refuse to accept the reality
that MOST (Sinclair excepted) broadcasters do not care about the OTA
audience (except when talking to the FCC and Congress). Many would be
happy to turn off the transmitters (both analog and digital) today,
if they could depend on cable and DBS carriage.
What is absolutely clear is that broadcasters have no interest in
promoting DTV, or in any plan that would cause consumers to drop
cable or DBS in favor of a "Free" OTA service.
If things are to get better for DTT here, we need less idle speculation
from those with axes to grind, and more real information. Why are good
STBs so late in coming and so hard to find? The technlology does exist.
Because the market for these boxes is very small, and the problems
associated with making these products work reliably for consumers is
so daunting. Remember, Bert, there are no truck rolls with DTV,
unless you want to pay an antenna installer yourself to establish
reliable service. We have some of the best engineers in the world on
this list, people who know TV inside and out. And yet we still have
many reports of service problems.
Actually, this is not completely true. USDTV has tried to develop a
service, complete with truck rolls. They picked some of the easiest
markets in the U.S. to establish service - i.e. transmitters on
mountain tops beaming down on valleys filled with potential
consumers. And they STILL have a large percentage of sites where they
cannot establish reliable service. It's almost a full time job,
updating the maps, redlining the neighborhoods where they will not
even attempt to install the service. Every truck roll that fails is a
hit to the bottom line. Compare this to cable or DBS, where there is
a near 100% chance that they will establish service and get at least
one year of subscriber fees from the home.
Regards
Craig
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Other related posts:
