[opendtv] Re: Toward digital TV
- From: Bob Miller <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 14:40:09 -0500
You did nothing wrong but be alone. Without must carry most OTHER
broadcasters would have been as intensely interested in the digital
modulation issue as Sinclair was or even more so and earlier. As a group
broadcasters would have fought a lot harder for and known a lot more
about DVB-T by late 1999. By the hearings in 2000, if that were so,
Sinclair would have had a gallery of broadcast supporters at the
hearings demanding DVB-T and banging their shoes on the table and I
can't believe that the test of 2000 would have been allowed to proceed
as they did. By now broadcasters would be demanding much higher fees
from cable and satellite than the timid fees demanded by retransmission
consent if broadcasters were even offering their content to cable and
satellite at all.
Correct initial test results, a second round of testing and much greater
support and involvement of more broadcasters in the test procedures
would have guaranteed at least further discussion. At the least DVB-T
would have been allowed as Sinclair asked for. More than three
broadcasters would have had the guts to vote for DVB-T in the face of
Congressional intimidation.If it had been allowed I believe we would
have a completely different DTV landscape in the US today with a hundred
different OTA receivers on the market and multiple successful, possibly
wildly successful USDTV ventures all of which would have been offering
free DVB-T receivers for the last almost six years.
In the UK they have sold over seven million receivers so far with a
million in the last quarter alone and I would suggest they will sell
close to two million this quarter. What if they had been giving them
away free with subscription based services as well like I suggest would
have happened in the US? What if they had been doing it since early
2001? After all USDTV can subsidize 8-VSB receivers at $19.95.
The nine million receivers that will have been sold in the UK by the end
of the year, my estimate, would be equivalent to 63 million in the US.
Add on a few extra years we would have had, add on the possibility that
there would have been a number of USDTV ventures giving away free
receivers and that number could be far higher like 100 million. The
digital transition would be virtually over and OTA would be kicking ass
in the US.
Freeview is outselling SKY four to one. Wouldn't it be nice if OTA was
offering real competition to cable and satellite in the US instead of
whatever it is broadcasters do with them?
And now you say it is starting to get exciting? New ideas are being
thought because maybe there is a solution for 8-VSB? Could have happened
years ago. Could still happen if all the hopes for 8-VSB over the next
few years were shown to be true and exceeded by DVB-T today. I don't
think Congress knows this. They would only know if broadcasters as a
group said enough is enough and laid out the facts and said that they as
a group were willing to do what it takes to do a switch and that this
would speed up the transition not slow it down.
Can you imagine the frenzy among all the manufacturers of DVB-T
equipment if this were to happen?.
None of this is meant as a criticism of you or Sinclair.
Bob Miller
Mark Aitken wrote:
>I/we am/are (a) Broadcaster(s). I/we am/are NOT married to must carry
>(Sinclair believes in the power of retransmission consent). There is
>8VSB in the US. There is NOT DVB-T for Broadcasters. There was a time
>I/we asked for DVB-T. We did not get what we asked for. Do you think
>if we asked again (in a very nice/pleasant way) we might get it? What
>did we do wrong?
>
>Bob Miller wrote:
>
>
>
>>If broadcasters were not married to must carry there would be no 8-VSB
>>modulation in the US and we WOULD have adopted DVB-T.
>>
>>None of these issues would be discussed at all.
>>
>>Bob Miller
>>
>>
>>
>>
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