How about because the legal foundation of u.s. broadcasting is the concept of "localism" and that providing service to a local community and ascertaining community needs and providing responsive programming is implicitly or explicitly a condition of the station's license? And, how about that one way to compete with U.S. cable networks is to provide local programming and not national programming? Now, you may have a different frame of reference in the Washington, D.C. market, since what the stations provide there as "local" news would qualify as "national" news were it aired in different markets. John Willkie -----Mensaje original----- De: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] En nombre de Manfredi, Albert E Enviado el: Friday, April 04, 2008 12:37 PM Para: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Asunto: [opendtv] Re: News: Local TV is no longer a cash cow Craig Birkmaier posted: http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-te.to.localtv03apr03,0,374 8488.story It seems to me that there are two different topics here: 1. The way OTA TV should be evolving, and 2. What local TV broadcasters should be creating. It is no surprise at all to me that OTA TV, *and* terrestrial radio, should be evolving something that isn't as heavily into "local TV" or "local radio." After all, the vast majority of what people want from their cable or DBS channels, or satellite radio, has nothing at all to do with "local." So, 85 percent of US households evidently don't view "localism" as being so very important. My question has long been, and continues to be, why should the survival of the OTA network be handicapped with this "localism" emphasis, when it seems abundantly clear that the reason people flock to MVPDs is exactly the opposite of "localism"? It's good for the station CEOs to be investigating alternative ideas for what sort of content they create and how they distribute it. And at the same time, it seems that terrestrial distribution networks should also be allowed to evolve too, and one example would be the increase, or abolition of, the national cap. Keep the local caps, abolish the national cap. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.