OK, so WHO is lying?

[dishcomm]

When 1 person has enough money to change the economy & literally do a gov't bailout if needed. I'd say it's time to take a 2nd look at regulating.

Not seeing the connection. Assuming you are referring to guys like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, what on Earth does their wealth have to do with crushing government regulations?
Newsflash, this country is the most over regulated over legislated nation on the face of the planet. We have laws for our laws. And the laws for the laws don't happen to apply, then new laws are introduced and passed to make sure there is a law.
Have you ever gone on line and read the final draft of a Bill that went to the floor for a vote? Let me know if you want a 3 week migraine and I will provide you with a link.

 

[dishcomm]

The 1996 Telecommunications Act deregulating media ownership is what caused this mess in the first place. I'm not one for gov't regulation but in the case of making it more difficult to allow monopolistic or oligopolic control of the landscape, something has to be done.

LIke anything else, there are good laws and regulations and poor ones as well.

 

[dishcomm]

I see your huh??, and raise you a huh??

http://www.hark.com/clips/msxrjjnfbj-roger-huh

 

[sam_gordon]

Yeah, the gov forced it due to the corporate lobbyist pressure from the studios/content owners, knowing they would be able to implement tighter DRM control over content delivery vs. analog. HD was just the eye candy leading the consumer into the windowless van.

With analog they had to have an empty channel in between every stations. Note that 4 & 5, 6 & 7, 13 & 14 all have band gaps so you could have a station on 4 & 5 for example under the old system, but not 3 & 4.

ATSC is designed so that the channels can be right next to each other without interference.

Thank you. I was only thinking of occupied bandwidth, didn't think of the "guard bands" (or whatever you want to call it).

 

[dishcomm]

Can we stop acting like broadcasters would have no viewers if it wasn't for sat co's? Do sat co's provide a local signal to viewers who otherwise wouldn't be able to get the signal? Absolutely! Is that really a huge percentage of the viewers? I don't think so. The majority of a stations audience is going to be around the city of license... well within OTA range.

The relationship between sat co's (& cable co's) and broadcasters is symbiotic. Broadcasters benefit by accessing some places they wouldn't be able to. Sat Co's (& cable co's) benefit because they would lose subscribers if they didn't offer LiL. Granted, they wouldn't lose all of them. But does anyone deny having LiL helped E* & D*?

videonex, you may be correct on who "crawls back" to who(m?). You could be wrong also. It might depend on the market and the broadcaster. Broadcasters & Dish both are going to spin the facts to make themselves look better.

I gotcha. Question: In your travels, how many homes do you see in a given week with an outdoor OTA?

 

[dishcomm]

I can't point to any cold hard facts, but I think it is very dependent on where you are talking about. And I might have tended to agree more until the switch to digital. There are huge chunks of Ct. that can not get all the networks anymore that could before. I had to go to extraordinary lengths to get them, and use my knowledge of antennas to do it. Even in the Tampa area, they moved the tower for the CBS station (WTSP) I again had to buy a better antenna to get it. It still can lose the signal when a plane flies by.

In addition, look at how many live in a condo or apartment as opposed to many years ago where there were more living in single family homes. It's not easy putting up an antenna as it used to be. So I think the networks are more dependent on Sat/Cable than ever.

I can attest. My parents live in Hernando County. There is no way they'd be able to receive all the Tampa DMA stations with a single antenna. Side note. AM radio stations out of Tampa are nonsense. Sigs struggle to get out that far. Even AM 970 which is Tampa's largest News/Talk station.

 

[mike123abc]

I just hope in the long run that OTA is not squeezed out by cellular demands. OTA is a valuable service currently. That may change in the future, but for now it is working.

 

[Teehar]

I just hope in the long run that OTA is not squeezed out by cellular demands. OTA is a valuable service currently. That may change in the future, but for now it is working.

Yep I agree.

 

[sam_gordon]

I gotcha. Question: In your travels, how many homes do you see in a given week with an outdoor OTA?

Not many, but some. However, what is the reason for a lack of outdoor OTA (antennas I assume)?

1) Homeowners are using cablecos or satcos for their television programming. Not because they HAVE to in order to get locals, but because it's easier since they're getting ESPN, Disney, History, et al, and locals are provided with the other channels.
2) They have an indoor or attic mounted antenna. An outdoor antenna is not a requirement for everyone to get OTA. Mine is mounted in the attic. You'd never know I get OTA by looking at the outside of my house.

I don't understand what point you're trying to prove. A lack of outdoor antennas doesn't mean people can't receive the signal.

 

[jrbdmb]

When it comes to retransmission disagreements, Charlie seems to always get the better hand & the stations fold. Eventually a compromise is made and all is well til the next contract period.

Yup - but we still get stuck with price increases comparable to DirecTV. All the wars Charlie fights with broadcast stations (and cable networks) are not benefiting the customer. DirecTV has far fewer of these issues and still manages to charge about the same price for the same programming.

I usually check once every year or two to see how my costs with Dish compare to DirecTV and Comcast. Comcast has always been the most expensive by far. When I first got Dish ten years ago DireTV also used to be more expensive - but over time the costs have evened out. All of Charlie's wars aren't doing me much good.

 

[harshness]

Every time Dish looses a channel they cry wolf and blame it on the broadcasters and say they are demanding too much money.

If DIRECTV weren't engaging in pretty much the same thing, you might have an argument. As it is, DIRECTV has their fair share of disputes and many of them have been much more public than the DISH ones. That DIRECTV "settles" may have a lot to do with the fact that the average DIRECTV customer pays over $20 a month more.

 

[dwarren2]

Direct is in dispute with Sinclair Broadcasting. There has been a scrawl on a couple of our locals this past weekend about getting Dish, TWC or a antenna to receive them.

 

[Dah-Henny]

IIRC, Direct lost 3 ABC stations this past weekend in Alaska.

 

[Dah-Henny]

Here

The Oscar-night blackout highlighted a nasty dispute between DirecTV and Vision Alaska, the Anchorage-based parent company for ABC affiliates in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau. The ABC stations’ Facebook page was flooded with complaints about the ongoing squabble.

http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/article_9f807cf4-7ff6-11e2-9132-001a4bcf6878.html

 

[KAB]

What say you, Claude?

 

[whatchel1]

What say you, Claude?

Oh please why did you have to ask him. He will just tell us how
D* will come to an agreement much quicker and better than E*.

 

[dishcomm]

Not many, but some. However, what is the reason for a lack of outdoor OTA (antennas I assume)?

1) Homeowners are using cablecos or satcos for their television programming. Not because they HAVE to in order to get locals, but because it's easier since they're getting ESPN, Disney, History, et al, and locals are provided with the other channels.
2) They have an indoor or attic mounted antenna. An outdoor antenna is not a requirement for everyone to get OTA. Mine is mounted in the attic. You'd never know I get OTA by looking at the outside of my house.

I don't understand what point you're trying to prove. A lack of outdoor antennas doesn't mean people can't receive the signal.

Wanna bet?...Pull up a map of television transmitter locations. Tell me how convenient it looks.
In my DMA there are transmitters to the northeast, north. west and south west of here. The range is from 15 miles to 30 miles distant. Now, this is DMA covers over 15 counties stretching from Ashe County in the NC mountains to Chesterfield County, Sc in the coastal plain. To give you an idea how big this DMA is, to drive from Cheraw, SC up to Jefferson, NC you cover roughly 200 miles which according to mapquest will take about 4 hours.
Fully a third of the DMA has virtually no reception.

 

[TheKrell]

Just buy a house on the top of a mountain, and you would be all set.

 

[sam_gordon]

Wanna bet?...Pull up a map of television transmitter locations. Tell me how convenient it looks.
In my DMA there are transmitters to the northeast, north. west and south west of here. The range is from 15 miles to 30 miles distant. Now, this is DMA covers over 15 counties stretching from Ashe County in the NC mountains to Chesterfield County, Sc in the coastal plain. To give you an idea how big this DMA is, to drive from Cheraw, SC up to Jefferson, NC you cover roughly 200 miles which according to mapquest will take about 4 hours.
Fully a third of the DMA has virtually no reception.

Yes, I'll bet. My point is you can't look at a lack of outdoor antennas and say "they can't get OTA." People could be using indoor antennas, cable, or satellite. Those on cable or satellite may be doing it for convenience, not necessity. Are there places that can't get OTA? Yes. I've never said different. So again, I don't understand what point you're trying to make.

 

[Tampa8]

Point is it isn't as easy to get OTA as you are saying. I do agree you can't just go by how many antennas you see, but even taking into consideration there are many who could get OTA, there are many many more who couldn't, or it would be a major hassle to do it, and thus the affiliates/networks are at least as dependent on Satellite as Satellite is on them. A problem for the Networks however, their viewership has slipped quite alot. As opposed to 10 years ago, I think alot more people could live without the Networks, because of the better (in some cases) and more Cable programming. Keep giving the product for free via the internet as many Network programs are the next day, and why even bother with an OTA antenna...