[opendtv] Re: FCC LPTV, Class A CP Proposed Grants Could Impact PSIP

  • From: Albert Manfredi <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2011 18:54:46 -0500

Craig Birkmaier wrote:
 
> Or to dress this in nicer clothes, broadcasters tend to look at
> PSIP as a necessary evil more than a promotional tool.
 
Maybe true. But again, painting everything with too broad a brush simply makes 
you lose credibility, IMO.
 
> The ATSC standard IS a point solution, not a framework for a new
> business model that is extensible as digital standards evolve.
 
It is just as extensible as any other digital protocol. The ATSC has already 
been extended, in spite of your assurances that it couldn't be.
 
But more importantly, if broadcasters were as blase about obsoleting the 
installed equipment base as the computer industry is, by now they could be 
transmitting everthing in H.264 or better, could have changed the modulation 
scheme at least three times, and they could have actually implemented all those 
extensions to the original Table 3. Nothing in the ATSC protocols prevents 
this. Maybe not as A/53, but isn't that just the poiint?
 
You would probably be saying that the Internet can't transmit streaming media, 
if you used the same logic. It wasn't until the mid 90s that streaming media 
became possible, and only because new protocols were developed to run over UDP. 
TCP/IP or UDP/IP were initially meant only for text and graphics, 
non-time-critical comms. Would you have said, "they just can't do real time 
audio and video, they aren't designed for it"? That's how you talk about ATSC.
 
The issue is not ATSC. The issue is how people expect their ATSC appliances, 
i.e. TVs, to work. People out there DO NOT want TVs to go obsolete in a year or 
two, as they want their smartphones to do. For example, the ATSC standards 
don't even forbid the use of STBs, as transitional devices, Craig. So your 
complaints are simply baseless.
 
> The cable companies and telcos are regulated as different services.
 
That's no excuse. Once the two started offering the same two-way services, i.e. 
broadband and telephone, there was absolutely no excuse to allow the cablecos 
extra leniency. I have no problem regulating industries that are not 
competitive enough, such as these two, but there's no excuse for regulating 
them differently. Sorry, Craig.
 
> What is interesting to speculate about, however, is why the telcos
> are waiting to deploy fiber based broadband services. The fiber is
> already in the ground in most neighborhoods in the country, and telco
> subscribers are paying for, but not benefiting from it.
 
Verizon has certainly been pushing us to get FiOS, shortly after the fiber was 
installed in our neighborhood. I'm not sure I want to reward them just yet, 
given how lousy their ADSL service has been in the past couple of months. Then 
again, Verizon FiOS already has the TV service built into it, so maybe they 
have no reason to wait.
 
> My educated guess is that the telcos are waiting for Over-the-Top
> to become a viable competitive option to cable. They cannot make
> enough money by competing directly with cable and DBS, a reality
> that is only accentuated by the fact that MVPD subscribers are
> finally beginning to decline.
 
Could be. This is the way business is supposed to work. You can keep jacking up 
the price of your product, but eventually you'll lose that price elasticity. 
MVPDs and congloms have just now reached the price that the market will bear. 
It's all fair game. Now the over the top web sites are going to go through the 
same cycle, charging for their stuff, until people refuse to buy in.
 
Bert
                                           
 
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