[opendtv] Re: Echostar make or break

  • From: "Albert Manfredi" <bert22306@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2006 20:38:58 -0400

Barry Brown wrote:

I would only be too happy to buy into LIL if the locals offered some
worthwhile programming for my community. First, living some distance
from the metro hub, there is little news or feature coverage about
my town even though it's one of the major tourist attractions on the
east coast. Second, just a few local commercials they air are about
the in-town merchants. Third, being a high-cost "repeater station"
for network programming, IMHO, is not a good business plan in this
day and age, particularly when so called "cable programming" is
getting so much better.

In my opinion, what we need are just a few local stations that
provide 24/7 programming unique to this entire DMA, not just the
metro area. They compete with all the other programming services
on an even playing field and thus let the national feeds come direct
from the service provider just as Echostar wanted to do in the first
place. Then I would subscribe to the locals just as I subscribe to my
community newspaper.

Barry, I have essentially advocated exactly what you describe already, not just for umbillical services, but also optionally for OTA networks. In OTA lingo, that would mean to eliminate the cap on OTA stations a given network can own nationwide (currently 39 percent). Eliminate that national cap, and the network can decide how much local programming to use in any given market, and how much of the OTA network to run on remote control, as it were. (Note that this does not reduce competition in each market, or points of view aired.) Seems to me that the vast majority of viewers woiuld find this very acceptable -- more similar to the European OTA model.

I thjink the way the broadcasters intend for this to work is either (a) that DISH would offer network coverage *only* as a LIL service, and at no extra charge, or (b) DISH would make sure you can receive the local OTA stations, and integrate them seamlessly via the STB they provide. I notice this DBS + OTA a lot where we live. My bet is that either of those options would be fine by you, yes?

Instead, DISH uses LIL service as an excuse to charge higher fees. And, of course, most people want network content, but not to pay extra for it. It shouldn't have to become a permium service.

Bert

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