[opendtv] Re: Ted Turner on Media Consolidation
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 20:52:30 -0800
The broadcast medium is different because it creates and shares news and
opinions. However, there are more TV stations in the U.S. than daily
newspapers; government does not regulate newspapers.
Broadcasting ain't like toasters.
John Willkie
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Manfredi, Albert E
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2004 2:01 PM
To: OpenDTV (E-mail)
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Ted Turner on Media Consolidation
Cliff Benham wrote:
> http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0407.turner.html
But doesn't this sound disingenuous coming from Ted
Turner?
First of all, what he describes here is the same across
any number of industries. How many car manufacturers
survived from the early 1900s? Whatever happened to the
Briklin? The DeLorean? It was easy once to start a new
car company, but no more. What about oil companies?
Airplane manufacturers? PCs?
So why should the broadcast media be any different?
But more to the point, Ted Turner's success, and I'll
bet his interest at the start, depended on his being
able to have nationwide and even global access. He is
one of them. Had he been limited to his one UHF station
in Atlanta, he would have lost interest and done
something else.
I think the focus of his complaint here is the national
cap. How successful would CNN be if it could only
access 35 or even 39 percent of US markets?
I'm not saying he isn't making some good points. I
am saying that it's not clear why he is the one making
these points. If the national cap is of any real value,
it should cover not just those with OTA infrastructure,
but also those with DBS and cable infrastructure, *and*
those providing content. The national cap is
meaningless as it is. It doesn't do what Ted Turner
wants.
Where would he and his nationwide and global networks
be if the national cap were applied fairly?
I'm not positive about this, but my impression is that
soon after the shutdown of NTSC, setting up a new
(single) OTA TV station will probably be a lot easier
than trying to get nationwide access on any
multichannel service. Until the newly freed up
spectrum gets all used.
Bert
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
