[opendtv] Re: Sony U.S execs: Expect a robust holiday season
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 13:23:28 -0500
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> This is interesting but largely irrelevant to the
> discussion. As you point out, this was not a market
> driven industry. It was a monopoly, just like
> broadcast TV until cable came along.
You have it exactly backwards.
Broadcast TV was a number, small number at first, of
competing businesses. Whereas cable was a single
company offering many more program streams. One single
company in any given geographic location. Monopoly.
People chose cable not because they liked the monopoly
or the enforced use of a proprietary STB, but because
that was their only oiption to get all the sports
shows.
> Unbelievable. There was NO OTHER CHOICE. You either
> had to go to Ma Bell, or forego having a phone.
Very good, Craig. And you had no choice for all the
extra sports coverage than the cable company.
> But you seem to think there is something noble in
> the government telling manufacturers and consumers
> that they need to prop up a dying franchise that
> would no longer exist ( in its current form) without
> government protection.
I remember very clearly spelling this out a very long
time ago. That in order to shut off analog OTA,
receivers capable of ATSC reception had to become
ubiquitous. And that the only way to make this happen
fairly was to incorporate digital cable (and DBS) in
the same receiver, to make it useful to the vast
majority.
So this has nothing to do with propping up anything.
This is a way for the govt to get spectrum back for
other uses, but not doing so by merely handing over
150 million odd households to local monopolies.
Hey, if TV started today, as a subscription-only
service, things might have been different. But TV and
radio available freely to the masses have existed for
more than 50 years. So too bad.
Bert
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