Why are broadcasters so afraid of FTA?

[Mikhel]

Why are broadcasters so determined to keep us from watching the programming they provide? FTA is so small compared to cable and dish and even if FTA was to die 100%!i really dont think it would make hardly a dent in how many viewers they have.So we have to stay in the dark and hide and hope the big guys think we are not watching them.Maybe they think if they dont do what they do now to prevent us from watching!KU and C dishes will start growing at a alarming rate finally making a dent in the rateings game.

Let's say you have a business, and you PAY the biggest local channel in your town so the people who live there see what you're selling so they can go and buy from you, for the sake of it let's say you buy air time in a NBC channel.

But after a while you notice that out of the 100% who watches NBC at the city where your ad airs, 70% are watching NBC BUT from NY or from the Puerto Rico mux.

So... what do you do if you're paying big bucks but only a 30% of the population that watchs NBC are watching the local channel?

All that matters for networks is $$$ and rightfully so, because that's the reason they can exist, operate, and bring people the series and programming they like so much.

If they (channels) loose viewers, they have to lower their ad insertion prices, so in turn they begin to get less and less money, and in the end maybe forcing them to change ownership of the local affiliate.

It's basically like going out and buy everything at Walmart, KMart, Target or any of the big national stores, instead of buying from local stores, whereas buying from BIG retailers usually saves you up a few bucks, all the money they gather go to the city they are registered (be it Washington, Los Angeles, Texas, etcetera), and just a small part of that money is kept at your city (most of it: salaries), and the BIG checks they pay regarding taxes instead of being paid at your state so the state can have MORE money, are going to the state where those big national (or transnational) companies are registered (to understand it a bit more you can read about the Gross Internal/domestic Product, and the Net Internal/domestic Product).

=)

 

[Blindowl1234]

Three words come to mind....Power....Greed....and $$$$$$$. Not in that order maybe....Blind

 

[stanleyjohn]

Looks like in a way we all here in the FTA world are guilty of piracy!unless we just look at broadcasts that really don't care if we watch.

 

[mastermesh]

Lets see... Equity ran unencrypted, and was an FTA Godsend. Where are they - oh yes, they went bankrupt and are no longer on the air for the most part.

Lets see... White Springs TV was unencrypted. Where is it - oh yes, they ran out of money to put stuff on satellite so now only broadcast on the internet.

Would you want to put your money on some great low risks like these?

 

[crackt]

Lets see... Equity ran unencrypted, and was an FTA Godsend. Where are they - oh yes, they went bankrupt and are no longer on the air for the most part.

Lets see... White Springs TV was unencrypted. Where is it - oh yes, they ran out of money to put stuff on satellite so now only broadcast on the internet.

Would you want to put your money on some great low risks like these?

maybe they had the wrong business model. a channel like TVU does fine raising money from its viewers. not to many ads on that channel either.

crackt out,.

 

[Stefan2K8]

Lets see... Equity ran unencrypted, and was an FTA Godsend. Where are they - oh yes, they went bankrupt and are no longer on the air for the most part.

Lets see... White Springs TV was unencrypted. Where is it - oh yes, they ran out of money to put stuff on satellite so now only broadcast on the internet.

Would you want to put your money on some great low risks like these?

Since you brought up Equity, let's refresh everyone's memory just a bit. There was a time when all of their signal was unencrypted and there was a time when they had to encrypt some of their Fox channels. They were forced to. I'm just bringing this up because some seem to think it's simply the decision of the uplinker whether to encrypt or not. That's usually not the case. All too often they're forced to encrypt by other parties who have "rights" and contend that FTA signals infringe upon those "rights". Like it or not, that's the way it is and it's why discretion is so important with regard to our hobby.

Most of you are missing the point. Nearly all television programming is licensed. Licensed to an individual station, licensed to a broadcast network, licensed to a cable/satellite network. The bottom line reason that most don't broadcast ITC is strictly because of licensing issues and market exclusivity. Realizing that FTA is such a minute blip of the tv radar screen, they just don't want to be bothered with policing this area.

There you go! Someone gets it. In a nutshell, this is the answer to this thread.

As to the old argument we always hear about how encryption cost money. If I understand correctly, that's not so much true as you might think. I believe BISS is pretty cheap. You simply have to have equipment that supports it, and some equipment comes standard with support for it. Then it's simply a matter of the uplinker and the intended recipient sharing a couple of pieces of information which they simply punch into their equipment. Anyone notice how BISS has become more popular as of late? So thinking they won't encrypt because it cost too much is very misguided in my opinion.

 

[Mr Tony]

Since you brought up Equity, let's refresh everyone's memory just a bit. There was a time when all of their signal was unencrypted and there was a time when they had to encrypt some of their Fox channels. They were forced to. I'm just bringing this up because some seem to think it's simply the decision of the uplinker whether to encrypt or not. That's usually not the case. All too often they're forced to encrypt by other parties who have "rights" and contend that FTA signals infringe upon those "rights". Like it or not, that's the way it is and it's why discretion is so important with regard to our hobby.

Actually Equity had to encrypt because some jackoff called his local Fox and said "haha I can watch other games on Fox with free to air"

Thats why Equity scrambled the one Fox...they kept Marquette, MI open..guess the Lions didnt get viewership
Actually WMQF didnt get scrambled because there were cable co's that didnt want to pay for a descrambler....and in some areas of the UP WMQF had to fight for viewers with Green Bay's WLUK...
Thats why Anchoarge had to scramble their local on AMC7 C-Band...someone blabbed to their local Fox

 

[Ironsides]

researching

If we really dig into this matter it all and I mean all boils down to GREED.

European nations was smart enough to not have stupid law suits and stupid laws based upon the wants of corporations. They might have a fee for a license to own a tv but at the same time they have excellent FTA and for reason.

Years ago we had laws here that prevented some of the crap that goes on today. However, that has changed and every single day you can see how our government is the best government money can buy. They could careless about what the public wants because in most cases it is totally against what the corporations want. In short the entire thing about PAY TV from it's birth till today has been nothing but GREED! GREED and Nothing else but greed.

If some of these so called providers gave a chit about the Public as whole during this time of hardship in our country you can damn well bet a lot of programming would be ITC for everyone. You will not ever see that because share holders would chit their pants and wouldn't get their profits.

Bottom line it's all about profit...another words GREED...

nothing wrong with any man or woman or corporation making a profit but when you do it on the backs of hard working people your success will be short lived. What comes around goes around and mark my words, the same thing they did will come back to haunt them as technology finds better ways to give people TV and it will happen...It is already happening!

When you base your business model on greedy methods to over charge your success will start to come to a fast end. As more and more people feel the hardships of job loss and start to cut back more and more. You will see companies starting to lower prices. That is already happening... People can do without cable tv and they can live without Satellite tv because when it comes down to they need to eat. The money they save each month from cutting back can be used for a lot of food.

FTA could be a means for these companies to stay floating as things get worse and as it seems things will get worse as they move wealth from one nation to another...Factor being what? GREED! Yea!

 

[DiscoLoveGrapes]

I know it's fun to say it's all evil corporations, or pure greed, or The Man(tm) keeping you from free TV, but in real life it's a lot more complicated:

For starters, we have a system rather unlike most other countries. Local affiliates are often not owned by the network they air in the US, and each one is localized. This rules out just sending out one satellite feed for all of the stations, allowing a little variance for a few minutes a day. Networks need to protect their local stations, which is not greedy, it's simply good practice. It's one of the reasons why the network has to act when some idiot decides to tell the local station that he's watching the game from far away for free.

The other thing is that the US does not have a national television station aimed at its own people -- that's against the law. That contrasts to most of the world, especially Europe, where the government were the only ones allowed to broadcast to its people until the past few decades, and even then some of the rules are extremely silly as to what can be broadcast (as pirate radio in the UK has attested to for 40+ years).

And it also means something that the US hasn't adopted dishes like other parts of the world. Cable was our way of expanding coverage, so someone deciding to put up their programming in the clear is going to only get thousands of viewers at best -- not the millions that others can get.

Plus, when your country's nearest neighbor is a smaller country with that borders another smaller country, you're going to get more on the dish. Here in the US, we've got two main neighbors: Canada and Mexico.

There's not an easy answer. I'd love it if more channels were available in the US unscrambled (and preferably Ku), but I know the logistics aren't always as easy. Then again, with the Internet and the growing number of FTA channels (in 2005: 99 on 97 West, in 2010: 150+), there's more choices for TV viewing than there has been in a long time.

 

[stanleyjohn]

I tend to agree that greed is a factor!But one thing does stand out today than the way it used to be and that is selection.Today you have a huge amount more selection of stations and programming than you did in the past.Might be that there isnt enough advertizment revenue to go around so other ways are needed to make money.But do beleave there should be some happy medium between what you got now and what you had in the past.

 

[Mr Tony]

unfortunately I did have to remove one post as it was very political. I did PM the poster the actual post so if they want to redo the post they can without the political stuff and wouldn't have to type it all again