[opendtv] Re: Free DBS and Cable?

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 18:50:55 -0500

Dan Grimes wrote:

> Really?  You think cable and DBS are going to have a
> free tier at some point?  I've never known the cable
> company to ever reduce anything but quality and
> customer support!  If DBS and cable did offer a free
> tier, I bet that would put the nail in the OTA coffin!

I wouldn't make that bet.

If a free tier is offered by these subscription
services, it would be primarily to lure people away
from OTA and onto their walled garden. The ultimate
objective is not to shift income from the "haves" (the
paying subscribers) to the "have nots" (the freeloaders),
but rather to increase their paying subscribers.

Should free OTA TV go away, IMO, the first thing that
will happen is that the free tiers would also disappear
from DBS and cable. I haven't seen any indication that
the FCC will mandate a free tier from these services.

Also, as Mark Schubin has pointed out many times, there
are situations in which neither cable nor DBS can be
used as easily as terrestrial OTA.

And finally, the OTA I get today, just NTSC, is better
than what a basic-basic (unadvertized but available)
service from Cox would provide me. More stations,
because OTA gives me Baltimore/Annapolis as well as
the Washington area stations. I'd expect any free tier
to be no better than this basic-basic package?

Bert

 
 
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