[opendtv] Re: Toward digital TV
- From: "Allen Le Roy Limberg" <allimberg@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:52:55 -0500
Broadcasters were insisting that the few legacy 8VSB DTV receivers not be
rendered unusable.
Al Limberg
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Miller" <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 2:40 PM
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Toward digital TV
> 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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