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[Discuss] Comcast gets rid of the remaining analog channels



On 02/09/2012 03:29 AM, Shirley M?rquez D?lcey wrote:
> On 2/9/2012 2:37 AM, Tom Metro wrote:
>>
>> In the end it is likely a mix of things already mentioned, like more HD
>> channels (clinging to the old model of overpriced channel packages),
>> higher Internet speeds, and simply cost savings by getting rid of
>> maintenance overhead for their analog plant.
> 
> Dropping analog has a lot of justifications, and I think they're
> actually correct to do it. Dropping ClearQAM for basic channels does
> not; it's no more difficult to digitally encode without encryption than
> with it. I suppose it makes their support problem slightly simpler (no
> guiding people through setting up their TV sets) but that's unlikely to
> be a big enough deal to matter.

My understanding is that the encryption isn't really a business goal of
the cable companies, but rather a requirement that is being forced on
them by the content producers.  The content producers can say "you need
to pay us X to carry our content if you encrypt, or pay us 10x if you
don't encrypt, to compensate us for the additional risk of piracy".

Look at it this way: the move to encryption forced them to give away a
lot of decryptor devices to existing customers to keep them from
screaming bloody murder.  That's a big up-front investment.  You might
say that they will make it back over the long run by charging a fee on
top of their costs for the future customers' set-top-boxes, but that's a
risky bet.  The FCC could swing back and outlaw encryption (b/c it
renders FCC-mandated controls like the V-Chip useless), consumers could
find another venue to spend their money, etc.

It's my opinion that the content producers (following the MPAA/RIAA
example) are grossly over-estimating the "piracy problem" (esp. in terms
of how much money they are "losing"), and therefore grossly
over-reacting in terms of the political pressure they are applying, and
the additional costs they are bundling into their products.

It's gotten to the point where I've /almost/ convinced my wife that we
should dump our cable service, and just do mythv OTA.

In the long run, I'm confident that they are just creating more room for
novel 'content providers', who are novel in their content distribution
models as much as their content, to step in and eat their lunch (e.g.
look up Lewis C.K.'s recent foray into self-publishing video of his
stand-up routine: bottom line was that he made a boatload more money
than he ever did doing deals with HBO Specials, and he did it with no
DRM).  More to the point, my wife and kids (who watch all the tv in our
house) watch as much off the internet as they do off our cable service.

So I'm sort of torn.  On the one hand my instinct is to fight their
political pressure to bend rules in ways that break my MythTV.  On the
other, the more success they have (from their point of view) at
protecting the business model they had in the pre-VCR days, the faster
they will become irrelevant...




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