[opendtv] Re: Digital TV: Brazil to Adopt Anything But the American System
- From: Bob Miller <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 22:34:33 -0500
Two books, one a Memoir by an NAB/ATSC ghost writer and another,
stranger than fiction genre, by Mario.
Bob Miller
Nat Ostroff wrote:
>John,
>
>I could not have told the story better. Thanks for the summery of the
>events from those days. The lack of technical knowledge and vision as
>well as the political influence that was exerted on NAB and others to
>"not rock the boat" has delivered the over the air TV business into the
>hands of the telecom folks. I suspect, just as they planned. If the
>Sinclair petition for a dual standard had been approved we would today
>be able to decide what businesses we, as broadcasters, wanted to
>address. That petition sat in the FCC without any action longer than any
>other on record. I can only speculate what forces were at work to delay
>the FCC. If you all remember, it was during that time that certain
>companies, in a coordinated fashion, issued press releases that claimed
>that they had found a "miracle chip". Based on those press releases the
>FCC finally rejected the Sinclair petition because"technical advances
>promised to solve the problems of 8VSB". You can only wonder about the
>timing of those press releases today and what went on behind the scenes.
>Of course, the miracle chips never really amounted anything but their
>vapor wear announcement killed any chance for a COFDM alternative.
>
>I think that there is a book in here somewhere....
>
>nat ostroff
>
>John Shutt wrote:
>
>
>
>>Both the NAB and the MSTV were more concerned with then pending Campaign
>>Finance Reform legislation that could have included forcing public license
>>holders to provide free airtime to candidates than they were about ATSC's
>>problems.
>>
>>They were being told by Zenith, Nxtwave, and others that ATSC's problems
>>were trivial and solvable, and were being told by Congress that rocking the
>>DTV boat by petitioning for a change in modulation schemes and delaying the
>>spectrum auction could result in candidate airtime giveaways.
>>
>>As it turned out, the problems weren't so easily fixed, and we probably
>>would have been further ahead in the transition if the Sinclair petition
>>were adopted back in 1999-2000. It's sickening to see all the DVB-T
>>products there are available to the rest of the world, and how few ATSC
>>products are available to us.
>>
>>It will be interesting to see the subscription rates with Crown Castle for
>>mobile phone TV. And to imagine that we could have been providing content
>>for no charge to the same DVB-H enabled phones is mind numbing.
>>
>>And in the final twist of irony, it appears that with the current Abrahamoff
>>scandal, there is once again calls for public funding of campaigns, which
>>will in all likelihood include OTA television stations giving away spots to
>>qualified candidates. So it may well be that the NAB and MSTV get stuck
>>with 1) a crippled digital television standard that will never perform as
>>well as the rest of the world, 2) delays in turning off NTSC, and 3) giving
>>away political spots for free.
>>
>>John
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Nat Ostroff" <nostroff@xxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>I know that we did have support and I personally appreciated it.
>>>However, the cards were stacked against us because the NAB and it's
>>>kissing cousin the MSTV seemed to be the captive of inside the beltway
>>>Washington interests. At the time it was hard to believe but now, given
>>>the big buck moves by NEXTELL and Qualcom and others it seems more
>>>plausable.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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