[opendtv] Re: Multicasting Stalls
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 08:55:37 -0500
At 4:07 PM -0600 1/4/11, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/111462
Multicasting Stalls
by John Merli, 01.03.2011
"Multicasting has not happened according to plan," said James
McQuivey, principal analyst at Forrester Research. "When analog TV
spectrum was being allocated for digital, broadcasters promised all
kinds of social benefits to come from multicasting if they could
just keep that large piece of spectrum. And maybe their hearts were
in it at the time, when they expected their broadcast monopolies
would still hold into the foreseeable future."
Mr. McQuivey is creating some revisionist history here.
Multicasting was NOT supported by broadcasters. In fact it was
specifically excluded from discussions in ACATS and the ATSC until
the 11th hour (the summer of 1995 to be exact).
Most broadcasters were operating under the assumption that carrying
additional programs would add expenses but steal viewers from their
main channel. I suspect this is still true today, except for the few
cases where the multicast can carry a second popular network like My
TV and the CW Network here in Gainesville, or one of the major
networks in small markets like Presque Isle.
It is interesting that the Fox Network is primarily responsible for
getting multicasting added to the ATSC standard ion 1995, but has
never taken advantage of it.
And in a separate note.
Mike Galgano asked about cases where stations used cable channel
branding in lieu of their actual channel number. I forgot about a
classic case in our own backyard. For decades WJXT, Channel 4 in
Jacksonville, was imported into the Gainesville market by Cox Cable -
it was carried on cable channel 4. When WJXT decided to drop its
network affiliation with CBS, an independent station operating on
Gainesville channel 53 was able to get the CBS affiliation for
Gainesville. But they branded the station as CBS 4, which took over
cable channel 4. After the DTV transition the physical channel moved
to 28; they still multicast My Network TV on 28.1 (CBS is on 28.2)
which is branded as MY 11 since it appears on cable channel 11 here
in Gainesville.
WJXT (now operating on Jacksonville channel 42) is still on the
Gainesville Cox Cable system on channel 19. And it is still branded
as Channel 4, although it is carried on cable channel 3 in
Jacksonville.
I would call this a virtual nightmare!
Regards
Craig
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