Side note: all of the major cable companies are already phasing out "analog" cable. Because of the high bandwidth it requires and the demands for adding more channels, they are eliminating their analog cable offerings in favor of expanding digital cable. In addition, most cable and satellite channels do not offer analog satellite feeds to them, so the cable systems have to do a conversion to even offer the channel via analog. Within 2 to 3 years, very few cable operators will be offering anything via analog cable.
-- -Rob de Santos -----Original Message----- From: Kevin Anderson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 10:52 AM To: Shortwave programming discussion Subject: Re: [Swprograms] BBC Newscast Shifts Lineup on U.S. Public TV Stations Wanting a non-U.S. viewpoint is exactly what I am after as well. Reports from non-U.S. reporters/stringers filtered through U.S. editors is most definitely not the same. As to BBC America appearing on more cable systems: I believe that the shift of U.S. OTA television to digital will have a negative impact on services provided by cable television providers, making it even less likely that a BBC America channel or similar will appear on the non-premium services. While we here in the U.S. with cable service are promised non-interrupted "good to go" service with this switch to OTA digital TV, I believe we will quickly see networks and channels, including those never provided OTA and currently in the cheaper "analog" side of cable, abandoning/demanding higher carriage fees and possible forced shifting to the digital premium side. What remains on the cheaper (for the customer) "analog" service will quickly become a wasteland of channels. Even OTA broadcasters, who are already starting to demand extra fees for carriage of their OTA signal on cable providers (which happened here in Iowa just a year ago by a broadcaster), will start to shift to the "premium" side. Either cable will become unaffordable or just become not worth it who can't upgrade to "premium" digital cable. And people like me who are far fringe to television markets, and therefore more-or-less dependent on cable or satellite TV, will be hit the hardest. Sorry if I dragged this yet further OT. Kevin Anderson r visit the URL shown above. _______________________________________________ Swprograms mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], or visit the URL shown above.
