[opendtv] Re: 20060901 Free Friday Fragments (Mark's Monday Memo)
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 18:08:49 -0400
Peter Wilson wrote:
> If its of any use a UK Digital Freeview Receiver STB for SD
> costs £24.97 ($45)in the local Tesco supermarket. Terrestrial
> boxes for HD @ 1080P50 & 720P50 will probably roll out in
> 2010 and the consumer will expect to pay no more than £75.
Which shows to me that COFDM and 8-VSB costs/prices are essentially the same.
The Samsung cost target, for a true HD box, is $168 next month, which by all
rights will be far below any £75 (~$135) by 2010.
But I would expect that if COFDM HD boxes were for sale today in the UK, by
2010 they too would likely cost less than £75.
(Parenthetically, my guesstimate from several years ago was that ATSC STBs by
January of 2007 would have broken the $100 barrier, if everything had stayed on
schedule. I expected by now an ATSC STB would go for ~$130. The price delta of
built-in ATSC receivers seems to have done what I had hoped, but it looks like
the stand-alone STB is lagging.)
> There are now significant numbers of 1080P50 displays
> shipping into the UK which will need the STB upgrade for
> Terrestrial HD. The interesting political battle is between
> SKY who have started HD on Satellite and firmly believe they
> should have the exclusive on HD and the Freeview camp who
> believe the consumer has the right to receive over the air
> HDTV. The switch off frequency allocations will be a very
> serious bun fight.
Lucky for the US of A, the whole idea of HDTV was championed originally by
those who designed it for OTA as well as cable distribution. If anything, the
cable industry opposed the whole idea for several years, in the early through
mid 1990s. I doubt any umbillical service providers can claim any exclusive
rights to HDTV on this side of the pond.
Bert
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