Mobile DTV on the cheap

[wb4jfi]

Remember Chip that the first (primary) DTV stream (which replaces the 
old analog signal) IS FREE.  It's only any additional channels or 
services that can use another revenue method.

Plus, at least in 2006 when I left, any additional revenue that stations 
received from additional streams/services were subject to federal 
government "fees", based on a percentage of that revenue.  I think those 
fees were "off the top" of the income (not net profit), but I'm not as 
sure about that.  So, if a station made money on an internet data stream 
for example, using extras bits derived from the DTV spectrum and made 
money, a portion of any additional income will effectively be "taxed" 
and sent to the feds.  We used to have to track that additional 
revenue.  They gets you comin', and they gets you goin'....

It costs stations much more to purchase, install and often run the new 
DTV facility, with no additional revenue associated with those costs.  
If a station went from a VHF to UHF channel, their MONTHLY electricity 
bill alone more than quintupled (typically under 10k to over easily 
50k).  Plus recurring tube costs, if now UHF.  Typical DTV conversion 
costs were about $3.5 million, just for the first part, not including a 
new tower, building, or other costs.  Many stations had to rebuy even 
more equipment at the end of the transition to make the "hard switch" 
overnight instead of a month or two.  And, viewership is declining at 
the same time.  Not a great business model in the long run.

So much for making more money with DTV...
Terry


On 1/15/2011 3:49 PM, Robert Stratton wrote:Pay OTA services aren't all 
that new, at least in the DC area.
> Channel 50 here in the the DC market used to sell a nighttime SSAVI-scrambled naughty movie service. Interestingly it happened to be the same type of scrambling (I won't dignify it by calling it "encryption") that Cox used for their local CATV service. My understanding is that when the pay service failed, the market was flooded with descramblers that didn't get returned. I wouldn't be surprised if that was a motivation for Cox to migrate to something a little more robust in the content protection department.It was fascinating to watch them flip the switch from their infomercial-saturated daily schedule. Some nights they would forget for a little while, which may well have been a marketing method. I should probably look to see how many FCC complaints were filed when that happened and people accidentally stumbled across people in flagrante delicto on their TV.--Bob S.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> So much for FREE OTA TV.
>>
>> --chip
>>
>> On Jan 8, 2011, at 10:19 AM, tacos-request at amrad.org wrote:
>>
>>> Message: 4
>>> Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2011 20:50:45 -0600 (CST)
>>> From: Robert Stratton<bob at stratton.net>
>>> Subject: Re: Mobile DTV on the cheap
>>> [...]
>>> One thing of which to be aware - some of the ATSC-M/H streams are
>>> encrypted. There are two competing ventures of content providers and
>>> broadcasters to try to develop pay services on top of Mobile DTV.
>>> It's possible that you'll see streams in the software that it might
>>> not be able to render because of encryption.
>>> [...]
>>> --Bob
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