[Discuss] Comcast gets rid of the remaining analog channels

[mark at buttery.org (Shirley Márquez Dúlcey)]

On 2/9/2012 8:45 AM, Matthew Gillen wrote:

> 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".

By "basic channels" I meant "the ones that are available as part of 
basic service" (the cheapest cable service) which are mostly available 
over the air, not the cable company definition of "basic channels" 
meaning "ones that you don't pay individual subscription fees for" (ie, 
not HBO etc). How can piracy be a consideration for channels that are 
already available at higher quality (the versions carried on cable are 
re-encoded at lower bitrates than the broadcasts) for free?