Media Minutes 2008-08-15
In their coverage of the impending digital TV conversion, the media has been ignoring the fact that the corporate media has a lock on any new channels that will emerge from the changeover. And Massachusetts has a new broadband bill that will bring high-speed broadband to rural areas.
- Artist: Free Press
- Title: Media Minutes: August 15, 2008
- Genre: Other
- Year: 2008
- Length: 5:03 minutes (4.62 MB)
- Format: Stereo 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR)
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DTV channel usage
This week the program ran on KWMD, just heard it, and I want to comment. The topic was digital television and how channel capacity can be more than one channel, and how unfair it is that multiple channels all go to one company. I am a commercial DTV broadcaster.
My response: US DTV standards set a bit rate of more than 19 megabits per second. If I feed my DTV transmitter with low quality audio streams at 16 kilobits per second, similar a AM radio quality, I can place more than 1,000 "radio stations" on my one DTV transmitter. If I put one high quality high def program on the transmitter, such as sent to cable systems by HD-NET (I used to have them on the DTV, until they pulled the plug after realizing over the air TV would not make money), which program runs an average of 18,500,000 bits per second with spikes to 19 Mb/s. I don't even have room for one extra sound channel. But that picture sure was great!
Government policy should be about allocating spectrum to users, not bitspace within that spectrum.
KYES-TV at present has 3 standard def programs, the KYES analog simulcast, BBC-World TV, which I steal from them, with their knowledge, Wealth TV, and two radio stations, KUDO-AM in FM quality, and KWMD radio. That stuff uses about 3/4 of the available bits.
I totally disagree that government should get into the process of allocating bit usage. The focus should be on allowing new broadcasters and other use of the soon to be empty TV spectrum, and encouraging multiple usage of that bit space.
As a broadcaster I have multiple barriers to multicasting interesting stuff. For example, KYES-TV is required to provide program listings and maybe closed captions, & Kids TV information. If we run EI stuff on an audio only service, we are still required to show the EI sign. With no picture this is, to say the least, difficult. Also the licensee is responsible for content and has copyright liability on all those channels. Our station can take the risk (when you have nothing, you have nothing to lose) but most cannot. Even PBS stations don't air their affiliated FM signals on the DTV. Why? Probably copyright and restrictive regulations.