[opendtv] Re: 20040510 Mark's Monday Memo
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 17:11:41 -0400
> >Why couldn't an OTA broadcaster rent out part of its 6 MHz
> >spectrum to "content providers" who view them "as a way to
> >get distribution"?
> >
> Problems:
>
> - USDTV charges for a package that includes cable-type
> channels of news,
> sports, kids programming, educational programming, how-to, and even
> premium movies. No single broadcaster can offer all of that, and
> broadcasters getting together and saying, "Okay, I'll carry
> Discovery;
> you carry Disney," sounds like fodder for trust-busters.
But aren't there natural "alliances," such as Disney and ABC?
How could anyone complain about illegal trusts in such cases?
In other cases, possibly the "outside" content provider would
choose whichever channel in the market it thought had the
brand identification that most closely matched this guy's
content? For example, teen show providers might gravitate to
WB stations, sitcoms might go more to UPN, etc.
> - USDTV charges $20/month. Would one broadcaster charge $2?
> $5? $10?
Its simpler than that, I'm thinking. What worked was Freeview,
not the previous services. Might work here as well.
> - USDTV subsidizes the boxes and installation.
>
> - By subsidizing the boxes, USDTV can introduce advanced=20
> compression coding.
Good point. Taking responsibility for making the system work
is one big advantage of cable and DBS compared with OTA. Then
again, this is part of the cost balancing exercise. In order
to offer those manhour-intensive services and compression
upgrades, and to pay for the transmission facility rental,
USDTV needs to take in revenue that the OTA broadcasters might
not have to worry about. Isn't this how these business models
are built?
> >I'm just not clear
> >why the OTA broadcaster couldn't do likewise, and for no
> >subscription fee.
> >
> Who pays Discovery, Disney, ESPN, Fox News, etc.?
Ad revenue might be enough, if the cost side is low enough.
The OTA station could either offer a fraction of the ad
revenue to the content provider, or all of the ad revenue
and accept a rental fee from the content provider.
Bert
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