[BC] OTA TV makes a big jump.

[Dana Puopolo]

The FCC had nothing to do with it. The decision was made by the 'Grand
Alliance' a consortium of manufacturers, cable, satellite and over the air
broadcasters. A truly dumb consortium if you ask me! Why should cable and
satellite have *anything* to do with an over the air DTV standard? They
directly compete with OTA, so the worst standard would be the best for them
(and that's what we got).

Of course, they didn't let in the *one* group who they should have - the
computer industry. Bill Gates even *personally* asked them for more time
before they made a decision because he understood the synergies possible
between computers and HDTV and they basically blew him off.

Unbelievable!

-D

From: wpio-fm <wpio at gate.net>

Why did we make the wrong choice?  Was "big money" more behind the
"wrong choice" sort of like "big radio" was behind IBOC?  Or was it more 
of the FCC going eenie-meenie-miney-moe, so to speak.