[opendtv] Re: News: GOP Wins Mean Continued Key Clout

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "OpenDTV (E-mail)" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 11:35:54 -0500

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

> Why is it that Sinclair affiliates virtually ALL of
> its stations with a major broadcast network? And why
> is it that those networks are the ones who would like
> to buy Sinclair and the rest of their affiliates?

I guess what you're suggesting is that the national
cap ends up helping large station groups, because the
major networks need them in order to cover the land
mass of the US, what with the national cap set to 39
percent. That's one way to look at it.

The other possibility, though, is that a large and
well designed OTA infrastructures owned by third
parties could be just as addictive to the major
networks as cable and DBS are.

You seem to go on at length about how the major
networks depend almost entirely on multichannel
service providers to access the viewership, and that
they *couldn't care less* about their OTA plant
except as it gives them access to cable and DBS.

So be consistent. If the major networks couldn't
care less about their OTA plant, they should
welcome having other organizations run that aspect
of the operation. And with economies of scale, it
can only help if these other organizations can
access *all* markets, as big cable and all DBS
companies do.

> The point of posting this story was to raise the
> question of what's going to happen next?

And that's what I already covered. No big changes
that impact anything. Even if the Democrats had won.
Even if the telecom act of 1996 gets rewritten,
because the parts that would be rewritten had not
been effective anyway. E.g., unbundling of the local
loop did not succeed at doing what was intended, for
reasons that should have been obvious even in 1996.
So a rewrite won't reduce the availability of
broadband access to the consumer, and might instead
be beneficial. Even ther Democrats have figured that
out.

Bert
 
 
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