[opendtv] Re: OTA an Unwalled Garden?
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 14:10:52 -0500
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> Dan Grimes wrote:
>>
>> I would argue that the FOTA is the biggest walled-garden there is.
>> The only openness of FOTA is that anyone in the area can pay the
>> price to enter the garden. The price is to install the technical
>> infrastructure in their own home. Other than that, FOTA is even
>> more limited: very limited as to whom can broadcast (the RF
>> portion), very limited as to whom can advertise, very limited as
>> to whom can provide programming. Every try to get some air space?
>> Every try to get some air time on any channel?
>
> Dan has it exactly right.
I suppose it depends how you define a walled garden, doesn't it. Ken just
informed us that he found 26 multiplexes and 104 programs streams in the LA
market, over the single OTA medium. Show me any other example of TV
distribution method that allows 26 (okay at least 13, if dual ownership)
independent "service providers" to coexist in a single medium.
Cost of entry may be high, and ultimately 104 program choices may not be
"enough," but to me that is not relevant to the question of whether the scheme
is unwalled.
Conversely, the Internet ought to be as unwalled as it gets, but now we are
finding equipment manufacturers getting in bed with middleman web sites that
will have control of that content. Or even ISPs, eventually.
I dare say, the cost of entry into OTA broadcasting, for instance as a
multicast of an LPTV station, might not be as high as some might think? Don't
know, I'm not a broadcaster, but that's my suspicion.
Bert
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