Craig Birkmaier wrote: > If theses companies are doing what companies do - maximizing > profits - why don't these companies do the same thing when > they sell their content outside of the U.S.? That's easy. It's because they aren't being given that option outside the US. You have to disabuse yourself of the notion that OTA TV is a funamentally different experience in other western countries, Craig. More effort is spent on transmitter siting, yes. Because broadcasters are not given greater incentives to NOT USE the OTA network. > I am not talking about giving broadcasters more spectrum. I > am talking about completing the build out of the existing DTV > networks. There are MANY areas where this will not be possible > until the analog shut-off, because the needed frequencies are > still being used for the analog service. In the UK the goal > for the percentage of homes "passed" by the terrestrial TV > service is very high - above 95%. This requires lots of gap > fillers in remote areas. Now you're changing the subject. What you're talking about now is what SHOULD also be happening here, which is the improvement of the DTT network as analog frequencies are taken back. I'm sure this will happen, at least to some extent, since there are now 3 times as many translators for analog TV as there are full power stations, in the US. These are supposed to flash cut to digital, after 2/18/2009. That has nothing to do with the vague, "What is important is the network of transmitters and how that network is 'tuned' for different applications," and "It is the structure of the network that is important for mobile services; a distributed network provides better spectral efficiency and more uniform power levels across the market(s) being served," and "It is simply absurd, given the importance of wireless communications, for broadcasters to waste a huge chunk of prime beach front spectrum to deliver their content to fixed receivers via competitors wired and satellite distribution infrastructures." You are now talking about DTT only. And primarily to fixed receivers, as I said. In the UK and in Italy, all talk of ubiquitous mobile service is shunted to DVB-H, and a separate service from DTT. In European countries, the expansion of the DTT network that you are now talking about is done with translators, as it CAN and SHOULD be done here. I gave you a number of very specific examples of this. SFNs are instead used, very occasionally, in single markets, like a large city. To cover the market area with the reduced power they are required to use there, for environmental concerns. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.