[opendtv] Re: News: Spain overhauls TV market
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 10:05:40 -0400
At 5:37 PM -0400 7/31/05, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
>
>So somehow, this cable channel has found it to their
>advantage to air their content on a newly available
>FTA band. That's what I've long believed could happen
>here as well, as more frequency bands and more
>subchannels become available with DTT (after analog
>shutdown, and with the relaxation of many of the UHF
>tabbos, *and* with the existing local ownership cap
>rules in place).
It remains to be seen what will happen here after analog shutdown. If
history is any indication, the existing broadcasters will state that
the FCC interference assumptions were wrong and that it will STILL be
necessary to protect them from co-channel and market-into -market
interference.
As we have discussed many times before in this forum, however, the
real issue is not technology, but the business model. And ANY
decision by ANY programmer will be predicated by the number of
eyeballs that they can reach via ANY distribution medium.
There are several reasons why it is becoming attractive for content
providers to move to FREE DTV platforms in Europe.
1. Large portions of the populations in Europe have never subscribed
to a multi-channel subscription service. And FTA broadcast channels
have been very difficult to acquire because of the tight control of
broadcasting by "state" broadcasters.
2. It has already been proven in Great Brittain and Germany, that
viewers find the proposition of a free multichannel TV service very
attractive. Spain originally proposed that DTV be a premium
subscription service, but pulled the plug when they saw what happened
to On Digital, followed by the success of Freeview.
3. In the UK, gaining access to Freeview is now an expensive
proposition. New entrants are paying a premium to get their content
on this service. In Spain it appears that the same thing is about to
happen. It just makes sense to invest in this new service, knowing
that in 5-10 years a sizeable percentage of homes in Spain will use
the service.
>I would love to see a clear explanation for how these
>Sogecable folk have rationalized their request for
>FTA access, and why that rationale would not work
>here in the US as well, as seems to be the consensus
>of opinion on this list.
The reasons why content providers want access to Freeview and now to
the new service that will be launched in Spain are obvious. As much
as 50% of the homes in these countries will use the FTA service.
There is NO corollary here in the U.S.
Broadcasters continue to lobby for scarcity, and have little if any
interest in pooling spectrum to field a FTA service that will compete
with cable. One of the major problems is that by keeping only a
limited amount of high value content available FTA, the content
conglomerates have been able to take control over the multi-channel
TV programming markets. Why give it away, wen you can get paid extra
by the cable companies for your ad supported content?
I have no doubt that a Freeview type service would be successful in the U.S.
And I have no reason to believe that the market dynamics here in the
U.S. will ever let a free multi-channel service exist.
Regards
Craig
>Bert
>
>
>
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