[opendtv] Re: News: Stevens Vows Cable-Indecency Crackdown
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 14:21:05 -0500
At 10:04 AM -0500 3/2/05, Cliff Benham wrote:
>What I'm saying is that the remaining OTA viewers don't have STBs, don't =
>want STBs,
>don't have TVs that require or can even accept software updates (!) and =
>that they just=20
>want to watch OTA TV with their plain old analog TV sets, and that there =
>is no way just a TV set
>with an indoor or outdoor antenna receiviing OTA can compete with the =
>services and features=20
>that are available through cable and satellite.=20
Not current analog sets. But this does not need to be the case for
digital broadcasting.
STBs may be appropriate in some cases. I seriously doubt that this is
the real issue.
The real issue is that the chosen technology for terrestrial digital
broadcasting in the U.S. is seriously flawed.
With a properly designed system and an open extensible platform that
does provide services that are competitive with cable and DBS,
broadcasters could easily capture a sizable share of the distribution
market.
Give people something that they perceive as being useful and valuable
and they will come.
The real threat to broadcasters is if they wait too long to compete.
Based on what is coming out of Washington this week, it looks like
the broadcasters are safe for another decade. The re-write of the
Telecommunications act in 2006 is unlikely to hurt broadcasters - it
may even help them if they can force cable to live by the same rules
on indecency. I think the real threat to broadcasters will happen
when the government has to borrow more money to pay for Social
Security benefits (i.e. pay back those worthless IOUs). So they will
need to start worrying about the DTV transition AFTER the 2016
re-write of the communications act.
Regards
Craig
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