[opendtv] Re: White paper from CEA
- From: "Tony Neece" <tonyneece@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 17:35:23 -0700
Pretty much on point Craig. What most cable companies will do to serve
their analog customers is purchase transcoders to down-convert the OTA
digital to analog at their head-end.
Still, there will be a lot of analog second sets, even in homes with =
cable,
that are not connected to the cable for one reason or another. Keep in =
mind
the San Jose PBS station that lost 34% of their audience when they
voluntarily dropped their analog signal. This happened even tho they =
did
their own surveys with 80% of the respondents stating they had cable.
I also have a problem with people being forced to pay for cable for =
service
they could get OTA if the CEA people would get serious about providing
economically priced STBs. If the cable companies do provide the local
channels free of charge, That would be moot. =20
But, and here is a big but! Even for Standard Definition TV, =
transmitted
via digital gives a great improvement in picture and sound quality. =
For 7
years now, broadcasters have been providing this superior service to the
public for free, (at great cost to themselves) but it has been largely
wasted due to the high price for STB's
Tony
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] =
On
Behalf Of Craig Birkmaier
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 9:03 AM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: White paper from CEA
At 4:46 PM -0700 10/21/05, Richard Hollandsworth wrote:
>Analog shutdown will affect cable systems as well as on-the-air, as=20
>was discussed in this thread:
>http://hdtv.forsandiego.com/messages/2/3749.html#POST19781
>Analog channel sources will soon dry up as all of the SAT, CATV and=20
>OTA systems go ALL DIGITAL.
>
>Most of the cable systems have announced plans for simulcasting=20
>analog channels on their digital tier, in preparation for an ALL=20
>DIGITAL cable system.
Not exactly. Remember, cable offers TWO analog tiers:
Basic/Lifeline
Extended Basic
The Basic tier is primarily the OTA analog channels that are required=20
for must carry/retransmission consent. With the Cox Cable system in=20
Gainesville the basic tier also includes TBS and a few shopping=20
channels.
What is likely to move to digital soon are the extended basic=20
channels, which are not available OTA, but cost a bunch of money in=20
subscriber fees that have been extorted through retransmission=20
consent agreements. In Gainesville most of the lower 500 MHz of=20
spectrum is still analog, except for the upstream channels that at=20
the low end of the cable spectrum. We get about 70 analog channels,=20
of which about 20 are the core basic/lifeline service. That means=20
that the rest - about 300 MHz of spectrum could be converted to=20
digital, enabling hundreds of new digital channels and/or on demand=20
services.
What I expect is that most cable systems will continue to offer the=20
basic tier channels in analog, either at a very low price as they do=20
today, or for free, to get people into their systems. Since all=20
legacy sets can tune to these analog channels there will be no need=20
to provision a STB unless the subscriber decides to pay more to get=20
more content. Since they already go past most of the homes that still=20
rely on OTA service, the cost to give away 20 analog channels will be=20
very low, with the potential to increase revenues as some of these=20
former OTA viewers become paying subscribers.
Bottom line, analog television is not likely to go away in this=20
decade...it's just moving.
Regards
Craig
P.S. A digital receiver is no longer adequate. PVR functionality is=20
becoming a standard feature for subscriber based systems. I expect it=20
will be standard on DVB-T STBs within a year.
=20
=20
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