[opendtv] Re: Why did we undertake this transition in the first place?
- From: Mark Schubin <tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 04 Mar 2005 11:48:43 -0500
>Advanced television was talked about since around 1985 or so, when Sony came
>out with it's 1125 equipment. Interest in HDTV peaked in 1987 with the
>opening of 1125 Productions in New York. Then interest waned when it was
>determined that analog HDTV would need 12 MHz of bandwidth, ala the NHK MUSE
>system in Japan.
>
>It wasn't until the advent of a digital system that allowed closer packing
>of the TV frequencies, along with the explosion in wireless devices, that
>gave the legislature ideas that they could then sell off spectrum that
>things went beyond the talking stage. N'est pas?
>
>
Non.
FCC MM Docket 87-268, as its number suggests, began in 1987. When the
FCC released its fifth report and order in that docket, in April 1997,
it mentioned shutting down NTSC in 1996. That was the docket that began
as an investigation of the delivery of "advanced television," meaning HDTV.
In the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, passed in July -- AFTER the FCC
rules -- the 1996 shutdown was picked up as a mechanism for helping to
balance the 2002 budget through a mandatory auction of to-be-returned
spectrum. But that was only after the FCC had already said the spectrum
would be freed, which was only after it began its investigation of
delivery of advanced television.
Congress never mandated the beginning of a transition to DTV. They only
added criteria to the end of it.
So, I don't think it's justifiable to say the purpose of the transition
in the first place was freeing spectrum. The purpose -- in the first
place -- was delivering advanced television.
FYI, I hardly think interest in HDTV peaked in 1987.
TTFN,
Mark
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