Craig your vehemence toward the broadcasters is pretty foolish. For = many decades the broadcasters provided a service the public loved and needed. What makes you think people chose to tune in TV because of broadcasters = who "lavish millions each year upon the politicians"? The broadcasters and their millions have had NOTING to do with the delay = of the analog shut-off. It is congress that has delayed it, not because = "they (broadcasters) lavish millions each year upon the politicians", but = because legislators do not wish to be voted out of office for taking TV away = from millions of their constituents. If inexpensive converters were = available to the public the broadcasters would already have shut off their analog transmitters. =20 There is no advantage to broadcasters to continue NTSC / analog = transmission other than that PEOPLE CAN RECEIVE IT!! And that is also how most cable head-ends get it too!! Craig, I'm sorry to say your points sound like so much of the naive anti-establishment ranting I got tired of during the 60's. -----Original Message----- From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] = On Behalf Of Craig Birkmaier Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 5:58 AM To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [opendtv] Re: White paper from CEA At 1:06 PM -0400 10/27/05, Bob Miller wrote: > >Maybe the term "broadcasting" used in broadcasting circles has taken on >a specific meaning understood by those who speak "broadcasting". Many = of >us don't yet. > Come on Bob... We all understand what John means... Only those with an FCC license to broadcast in the radio and/or=20 television bands are broadcasters. Everyone else is merely a=20 pretender... I just spoke about the future of DTV at the Community Broadcaster's=20 Association conference in Las Vegas. These folks have FCC licenses=20 for Class A and LPTV channels, but they are second and third class=20 citizens at best. They do not get any cable carriage rights. In rare=20 cases they can negotiate carriage if they have some unique=20 programming. They are being forced to use the ATSC standard despite=20 the fact they they could used DVB-T to field a FTA broadcast service=20 that could actually compete with cable. Broadcasters enjoy a special place in Washington, because they are=20 the only service that get's virtually 100% clearance into every home=20 in the U.S. Never mind that 85% of these homes do not receive their=20 broadcasts, but rather, they pay extra to get these channels=20 delivered by a service that competes with REAL broadcasters... And they lavish millions each year upon the politicians that they=20 help keep in power. So next year when you attend the National=20 Association of Broadcasters Convention, just remember, that you, and=20 all of the exhibitors that have absolutely nothing to do with=20 "broadcasting," are filling the NAB war chest with cash so that REAL=20 broadcasters can continue to make obscene profit margins, and force=20 competitors (i.e. subscribers) to pay for something they may never=20 use, just like the ATSC receivers we are being forced by the FCC to=20 buy, whether we want them or not. Regards Craig =20 =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org=20 - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.