[BC] HDTV

[Alan Kline]

Here's a philosophical question for the group:  Why is it OK for one of
the national cable networks (ESPN-HD, HBO, or whatever) to seek and
receive payment from cable companies for their HD product, but when a
local broadcaster does the same, it's seen as trying to "extract" money
from the cable system?

The cable companies are making money selling our HD product to
subscribers--they're not giving it away.  Why should we (TV broadcasters)
simply *give away* the product they're selling?  If a person walks into
Sears or WalMart, they can be sure that the retailer paid the manufacturer
for the products on display.  Why is it any different in broadcasting?
Also, keep in mind that local cable operators compete with broadcasters
for local ad sales.  Why should we just give away our premium product to a
competitor?

Then, to add insult to injury, the same cable companies that take our
product and expect to pay nothing for it, twist and skew the Nielsen
ratings in such a way that makes the so-called "cable networks" look like
they perform better than they really would if accurately compared with
broadcast networks.

Yes, I know...I haven't had my Wheaties this morning.  As I'm sure one and
all can see, this is one of my pet peeves...

ak

On Wed, 8 Feb 2006, Scott Fybush wrote:

> There's a terrific irony here...
>
> ...yup, the same Nexstar Broadcasting that put WROC-DT here in Rochester
> on the air with a whopping 1740 watts of power and no HD capability at
> all. (That was before they did something to their encoder a few months
> ago that caused even the weak SD signal to be undecodable on my DTV
> tuner and every other DTV tuner I've checked out in town.)
>
> If I want CBS HD in Rochester, I need the big rooftop antenna pointed at
> Buffalo or Syracuse.
>
> (And even when they finally get HD on the air here, sometime in the
> spring, they're trying to extract cash from the cable company for
> carriage, so cable customers still won't see it.)
>
> Want HDTV? Be careful, indeed...