Bert manages to write volumes about the potential transition to ATSC 1.0, while
ignoring the reality of what just happened. The congloms just castrated
Sinclair. In so doing they also made a statement about the technology that Mark
and his peers have been promoting.
The congloms have NO INTEREST in deploying ATSC 3.0. It makes no sense for a
business model that is slowly winding down - a business model that is entirely
dependent on the legacy MVPD business model that is ALSO winding down.
There is one section of the article that address the crus of the matter:
The FCC's actions has prompted the Department of Justice to examine the
process of TV ad sales and whether broadcasters have conspired to
artificially inflate ad pricing. Several class action suits have been filed
against Sinclair, Tribune and several other station groups.
"The biggest continual decline in our business is ad revenues," Mark Aitken,
vice president of advanced technology for Sinclair told the Wall Street
Journal last year, adding that deployment of the new standard could stop and
ultimately reverse that "draining process."
On Aug 22, 2018, at 4:54 PM, Manfredi (US), Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
If the market does not require ATSC 3.0 to have those new features in TV
material anyway, then is this just a fabricated excuse to allow for more
consolidation? Just asking. Keep ATSC 1.0 for legacy OTA broadcasting, and
exploit the Internet connection, already in many TV sets and add-on little
boxes, for the rest. Hey, an ATSC 3.0 set without that extra ISP connection
CANNOT use any of the new features anyway. So, what's the point? Might as
well stay with what's already deployed, for that OTA role.
The only marginal new capability actually offered by this might be easier
direct broadcast reception by smartphones. But even that is hardly a slam
dunk. (1) It's unlikely that the US cellcos will allow that feature to be
activated at all. (2) Using ATSC 3.0 that way will cut into the capacity for
all the wonderful 4K HDR they keep bragging about, and never mind the many
subchannels available now with ATSC 1.0. (3) Mobile users do not often want
that kind of episodic, real time TV content anyway. Just see what happened to
DVB-H.
Seems that more people are using OTA for their fixed TV sets than ever
before, due to the ongoing cord cutting phenomenon. All you can do here is
weaken that market, in the hopes of getting new mobile users that most likely
won't materialize.
"The potential collapse of the Sinclair Tribune merger could make it more
difficult to reach critical mass, however it won't stop the train.",
The "train" has been running for years and years already. VOD, targeted ads,
interactive content, 4K, immersive sound, all of it is already available,
without mandating any more mergers. The TV broadcasters have to find a
significant role in actual Internet distribution of TV content, or just
provide the local news/weather content only, and let CDNs and others handle
the Internet distribution.