[BC] The place for OTA TV

[robertm]

OTA is actually gaining viewers as there are more and more cord cutters going OTA. Under the current ATSC standard two DTV streams per channel is the practical maximum. I doubt the networks would go that way though. They are moving in the opposite direction switching production to 4K. Networks do not make a lot of profit on first run prime time production it is the syndication and other post broadcast distribution that makes the money but they want to broadcast the highest quality possible because of competition from other video sources.  They are dealing with the future as far as their prime asset, the content, is concerned. 

Personally I don't worry too much about the future as many things are either evolutionary or the result of unintended consequences. The Internet as a whole is a good example of this. What I do worry about is fairness. It is easy to visualize new and wonderful technologies in an urban area but look at the published coverage map of any cell provider. They all have white spaces with many being in common for all providers. Those spaces are the parts of the country with low population density and are also places where where Internet service is either lacking or non existent as is cable and in a few cases, basic telephone. OTA reaches many of these places that have little else.  

>On Jul 19, 2014, at 11:17 AM, "Henry Ruhwiedela9xw at cs.com.INVALID" <reader1 at oldradio.com> wrote:

>As I have oft said, it may come to one or two sticks per market and the 1-2 channels shared by most of the program providers that can still figure out how to make money at it in a DTV multicast. Looking at MSM (main stream media) ratings/shares, (ABC NBC CBS, FOX, PBS) all their DTV program channels could be handled on one channel and 1 stick  Technology eventually makes everything obsolete.
>We need to look to the future, and not at the present and solve the question, "Where do we go from here?