Two observations: The article was spot on when it was pointed out that it was the broadcast TV stations, more than any other entity that delayed the transition to digital. Only when finally forced to do so by the FCC and Congress, did things move forward. In the end, the broadcast industry has been their own worst enemy.
I also found it curious that in discussing the local (Washington DC) market, the author failed to note one of the most innovative uses of secondary channels, that being performed by MHz Networks. Via their two DC area public broadcasting signals, they carry 10 different feeds; none of them shopping channels, old reruns, or repeats of other programming. Most MHz programming is international in flavor. The author seems to have totally missed this. Sadly, they are the rare exception nationally. MHz provides a national feed available to other public television outlets in the US for their secondary channels. At last count, only about 20 or so have picked up MHz Network for one of their channels. Instead, most are offering yet more alternate feeds of the existing PBS driven programming. I've personally met with the programming staff at several television stations in my area. I came away with the feeling that across the board you could characterize their view of the secondary channels as: a) Where's the revenue? b) Corporate says we have to air (_________) so that's what we are doing and c) We don't know what we are going to do. The complete lack of imagination seemed to be worse than that of the programming for the alternate HD Radio channels (and that is hard). -- -Rob de Santos Columbus, OH -----Original Message----- From: Richard Cuff [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 10:05 AM To: Shortwave programming discussion Subject: [Swprograms] The Reality of Digital Television Doesn't Meet the Hype -- Whose Fault Is That? - washingtonpost.com On the eve of the eve of the digital cutover... See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/09/AR2009060903144. html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter or http://snipurl.com/ju2o6 Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA _______________________________________________ Swprograms mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.
