[opendtv] Re: Up to the minute on demand newscasts
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2015 00:29:15 +0000
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
Please remember the context. We are talking about a broadcast
channel that can only deliver linear programming.
Says who? We are talking more broadly about delivering TV content. Even before
using IP, MVPDs began doing so both live and on demand. If you're watching HBO
on demand, and someone asks "what channel are you watching," how would you
answer, Craig? Confusion?
And we are also talking about "news channels" like CNN, Fox
News, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox Business Channel etc.
Again, who says how these "channels" are viewed? I can go to the France 24 web
site, and I can view the supposed "live stream" (which is in fact a mix of
actually live and pre-packaged stories), or I can view separate short clips, or
I can tune to Ch 30.7, for the ATSC version of the same "live stream" I get
online.
Tell me this, Craig. What's the difference between watching the online "live
stream" of France 24, and watching the OTA "live stream"? If someone were to
ask "What channel are you watching," to the average person watching the online
France 24 "live stream," what would this guy answer? Would he be befuddled by
the question? Or would he say France 24? "Channel" is an anachronism now, in
the Internet TV era. It's become synonymous with "source of content."
But there are times that people want to see important news
as it happens...
And they can. Let's be clear about this. The ONLY issue is how much spectrum or
other resource must truly be dedicated, 24/7, to one-way broadcast. For those
rare occasions in which many people simultaneously must get the same content,
and these are definitely rare in the greater scheme of things, there is always
IP multicast. Once you're connected via 2-way link, be it wired or wireless,
that's always an option for the ISP. So no need to go off and make a big deal
giving specific examples.
The main point is, most of the time by far, you are better off assembling even
the scripted, 30 minute newscasts, as I described. Essentially doing in the
distributed servers what the studio is doing in their by-appointment news
broadcasts. The individual stories can be at least as fresh and up to date, as
I describe, compared with what they are in the by-appointment newscast.
Breakfast TV is very popular and profitable.
Same deal. Get up for breakfast, and demand the show. If you're 10 minutes
late, no problem, you can still get it from the top. In fact, if you're way
early, you can still get the canned parts of the show, without the latest
happy-talk perhaps. That's entirely up to the entity that's assembling these
shows, on their video servers.
Who decides what stories to assemble into that 30 minute show?
Who decides now, Craig? Why do you think that would change?
And how often the run sheet is to be updated?
As often as the station or the network wants, Craig. Ain't it great? Individual
news stories, within this 30 minute program, can be updated by the minute, if
there's a need to, without having to wait until the next scheduled news
appointment.
My main question is why not live?
Because technology does not constrain us to "live" anymore. Notice the
quotation marks. The only thing that was "live" was how the signal left the
studio. Most of the stories aren't actually "live" at all. Never were. We can
now assemble the shows in dispersed servers, and feed out that signal only as
required. Not over a one-way broadcast pipe that must schedule the streams way
ahead of time, because it has to accommodate a long queue of other programs, in
that same one-way pipe.
Again, I would point out the context of this discussion. A
broadcasters has slots to fill on their linear channel.
And again, in my context, what I have been trying to get across, is that this
is legacy thinking, Craig. You are in effect telling me, "We need broadcast
because I only want to think in terms that make sense for that old one-way
broadcast pipe."
But to eliminate the live linear news shows begs the
question of why broadcasters need any spectrum at all...
I wish you had started here. The answer is, they don't. Broadcasters need to
find a role in the Internet, and they have one, as CDNs. This is why, in the
slightly longer term, the important parts of ATSC 3.0 are going to be the
Internet parts of ATSC 3.0. (Repeating myself.) Yes, the luddites have to be
trained, but many of these luddites already pride themselves in their online
skills. For some odd reason, they can't grasp that the same skills can be used
for TV. We've covered this ground many times.
Bert
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