[opendtv] Re: Nine ways Apple, Inc. just changed the landscape of consumer electronics

  • From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:59:15 -0800

Thanks John.  I've never said that mobile video was DOA.

I say that it's not really a mass market, and probably won't ever be much of
one. Compared to traditional broadcasting. 

Years ago, I said (and provided an excel spreadsheet here for all to play
with) that it might be able to add 2% to a broadcaster's audience, day in
and day out.

Broadcasters are in the best position to serve that audience and to benefit
from it with the right service setup.  Cell providers are in a worse
position; they have to buy (or create) the content, they want to charge by
the minute, they have to navigate broadcaster's exclusivity to the most
desirable content.  Broadcasters already have the transmitters, the content,
the exclusivity, the local news and most are able to respond in a flash or
thrice.

As a professional consideration, I have made changes in my PSIP generation
systems so that they can serve A-VSB compliant transport streams. (I can't
provide any details, and the work is continuing.)

John Willkie

> -----Original Message-----
> From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> On Behalf Of John Shutt
> Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 7:00 AM
> To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [opendtv] Re: Nine ways Apple, Inc. just changed the landscape of
> consumer electronics
> 
> I'm sure John W. is fully capable of defending his own positions, but to
> be
> fair, I think John's point has always been that there is no market from
> the
> commercial broadcaster's point of view for mobile video.
> 
> There clearly is a market for mobile video devices, with the money made in
> selling the hardware and subscriptions to the content.  There is no market
> for a broadcaster to create a stand alone mobile-only advertiser supported
> service.
> 
> On one level I can agree with John, but on another level I have to believe
> that in the long run more mobile video appliances would have been sold if
> we
> had an OTA digital transmission system that more easily supported mobile
> applications, even if not optimized for mobile.
> 
> Say what you will, but DVB-T can support less than perfect mobile
> reception
> as is, without any bitrate hits via tricks like HM-COFDM or interspersing
> DVB-H bits within a DVB-T transmission.  ATSC cannot be received mobily,
> and
> therefore must have an exclusive mobile-only bit robbing solution like A-
> VSB
> or E-VSB.
> 
> I know from our own station how much more reluctant we are to lease bits
> to
> PBS National Datacast knowing that it comes out of our useful payload than
> we were in leasing vertical interval space in our NTSC which was wasted
> anyway.  We would be equally reluctant to rob two 'normal' bits to
> transmit
> one 'mobile' bit to practically nobody.  That is why I am fairly certain
> that A-VSB will fail in the marketplace no matter how well it may work.
> 

 
 
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