[opendtv] Re: News: DIRECTV Sued Over HDTV Picture Quality

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:29:00 -0400

At 2:16 AM -0400 9/21/06, Cliff Benham wrote:

I wonder if anyone will be entertaining the idea of filing a suit against the ATSC for creating and promoting a system that doesn't work?
Note: See another thread on this list:
Which Modulation Would You Choose on a really bad day?



As long as NTSC is available I doubt that there is grounds for any lawsuit. Perhaps there could be grounds to sue the government for mandating tuners for a service that people do not want, and in many cases, does not work at the site of installation.


When NTSC goes away, however, there will be a large class of people who will be disenfranchised. Most of these people do not have the means or the initiative to sue, however, the potential for a class action lawsuit involving millions of consumers will be VERY APPEALING to the legal sharks.

Then again, by 2009 it may not matter. The OTA franchise is in rapid decline...

This is a classic case of extending a very lucrative product life cycle curve. The end game is either:

1. Kill the OTA franchise so that the conglomerates can recover the revenues that now go to affiliates via deals with cable, DBS, and the telcos.

2. Kill the OTA franchise so that it can be replaced with a new (viable) franchise controlled by the conglomerates.

In either case, ATSC is irrelevant.

Regards
Craig

P.S. and then there is broadband for fixed receivers and wireless data services for mobile and hand held devices.


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