[opendtv] Re: --FCC OKs WiFi between TV channels
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 10:24:00 -0400
At 8:11 PM -0400 5/24/04, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
>We have recently seen a couple of cases where stations were willing
>to give up NTSC. In each case, IIRC, the rationale given was that
>they wouldn't lose much viewership anyway. The rationale was *NOT*
>that they would promote their DTV channel, and would save energy
>costs in the process.
The reality is that the stations giving up the NTSC channel are
primarily PBS affiliates with limited budgets. To them the
transmitter is little more than an STL to the cable companies. By
dropping NTSC they DO save money on the power bill, and they get a
STL that works better than the NTSC version.
>
>Imagine how successful UHF would have been, had UHF receivers
>continued to be only an external converter, costing upwards of
>$100, and only available if buyers made a concerted effort of
>finding anyone who would sell them. My guess is that cable would
>have taken hold a lot sooner than it did, under such
>circumstances. That's precisely how this DTV transition is
>turning out.
One might argue that without the FCC UHF tuner mandate, that the
service might never have taken off. I tend to doubt this, as the
shift to solid state tuners made adding UHF AND cable ready tuning
easy. It is risky to give the government credit for something that
the marketplaace probably would have done anyway.
The real growth of UHF was driven by two important factors:
1. The availability of lower cost gear to operate a TV station;
2. The availability of satellite distribution that fueled the
availability of content for stations not affiliated with the major
networks.
The big growth spurt in TV stations came in the 80s, about the same
time that cable started growing thanks to increased content
offerings. Come to think of it, many of these new UHF stations
assumed cable carriage in the business plan, thanks to must carry.
Regards
Craig
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