[opendtv] Re: DTV Delay Bill Introduced

  • From: Frank Eory <frank.eory@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:51:11 -0700

Bob Miller wrote:

The UK had 67.2% of homes using OTA DTV end of 3rd quarter 2008. That
should be around 73-74% now since the fourth quarter is the big one.
36.5% of UK homes were OTA ONLY. That number is falling as satellite
is growing but the number of homes with OTA DTV is growing. In the
third quarter of 2008 they grew by 2.1%.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtu_2008_03/q3_2008.pdf

There are differences with the US. UK OTA DTV users have been buying
into OTA long before the end of their transition. They have been
buying into OTA DTV from the beginning and at an ever increasing rate.
They are doing so because the service is seen as a very good deal that
works well.

In the US buyers are buying subsidized and crippled receivers under
the threat of a deadline. They are buying receivers because they have
to or because they can't pass up a subsidized deal that cost them
little. The question is how many will actually use these minimal
receivers and FOR HOW LONG. How many who have problems with reception
will do whatever to get decent reception and how many will be put off
by any problem with reception and give up.

Bob Miller
Forget about "crippled receivers" Bob. The issue today is more about a crippled wireless system design that fails to provide the level of ubiquity, reliability and portability that consumers have come to expect from a wireless service.
What has been true since this transition started, and what will continue to be true as it completes, is that some consumers will delight in receiving gorgeous digital video "for free" that is mostly reliable most of the time -- an improvement over what they had before -- and many others will have sufficient difficulty that they will decide it's too much hassle, too expensive to re-do their antenna setup, or too unreliable, and they will choose to pay for cable or satellite. Many will choose to just feed their video habit from a broadband internet connection. 

-- Frank


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