The Free Speech Argument For Digital TV and Digital Radio

[ddeclue]

Many of us here at DU are opposed to the switchover to digital television.

Yet we need to remember that there are a number of good reasons for doing so.

Beyond the technical reasons, there is another reason:

Media diversification.

Right now most of the radio and television stations in this country are owned by just a few media companies.

One limitation in providing additional new independent channels (both in radio and television) is a lack of spectrum. When analog television channels are replaced by digital ones, a large number of additional channels will be available because digital signals are compressed digitally. Where a broadcaster currently only has one analog channel they can have 3 or 4 digital channels running entirely different programming material.

Additionally, adjacent channel interference tends to limit channels at present so that you don't typically see a channel 5 and a channel 6 in the same market.

Digital broadcasting will make it possible to solve this sort of problem. It will also allow for lower power stations so that stations using the same channel can be located more closely together because digital signals can effectively eliminate noise (error) in their signals by including error correction information in their signal where the only option to improve signal quality in an analog signal is to boost the power.

We will see similar effects in the arena of digital radio as well. An FM station requires 200 kHz of frequency space at a minimum and there are limits, especially in high population areas for both radio and television for the number of over the air channels available. A digital radio station could operate effectively on about 20kHz of bandwidth using compression techniques.

My point is simply that digital radio and TV open up a large opportunity for diversifying programming over the air and opening up the people's airwaves to a large number of new programs by independent producers and opens up the opportunity for a large number of new independent television and radio station owners.

In the new digital world, homegrown, home town programs and station owners if we use it properly will break the monopoly held by CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, FOX and the large chains of radio and television station owners over what we hear and what we see and restore free speech to our airwaves.

Doug De Clue
(formerly an RF engineer with Scientific Atlanta and Motorola)

[tech3149]

1. Mr De Clue makes a point on only technology, missed the point.

The problem is ownership and access. The "community " airwaves have just been divvied up to provide a greater # of signals in the available bandwidth. Who is being licensed for the use of these additional channels? If they are commercial broadcasters, how much are they paying for this access? What are the requirements for licensee's for community service content? Are there sufficient resources dedicated to assuring that the change provides true community benefits?

From what I've seen of this, the only change is that it gives the current licensee's additional channels for selling advertising with the only cost being updating hardware and finding programming that might draw an audience. How many channels do we need to get the same stupid sitcoms, game shows or infomercials 24/7?

Pittsburgh Area HDTV Channels
STATION CHANNEL RF CHANNEL NETWORK
KDKADT 2.1 25 CBS WTAEDT 4.1 51 ABC WTAEDT2 4.2 51 Ind WPXIDT 11.1 48 NBC WPXIDT2 11.2 48 Ind WQEDDT 13.1 38 PBS WQEDDT2 13.2 38 PBS WQEDDT3 13.3 38 Ind WQEXDT 16.1 26 Ind WPMYDT 22.1 42 MyN WPMYDT2 22.2 42 Ind WPCBDT 40.1 50 Ind WPGHDT 53.1 43 Fox WPGHDT2 53.2 43 Fox

Johnstown-Altoona
WPSUDT 3.1 15 PBS WPSUDT2 3.2 15 PBS WPSUDT3 3.3 15 PBS WJACDT 6.1 34 NBC WJACDT2 6.2 34 NBC WWCPDT 8.1 29 Fox WTAJDT 10.1 32 CBS WATMDT 23.1 24 ABC WKBSDT 47.1 46 Ind

This is a list of the current channel assignments for my home market, notice anything significant? The licensee's are all current commercial or PBS broadcasters. Nobody new, no community/ public service only stations.

That, as Zappa would say, is the crux of the biscuit! Digital broadcast TV is just another selling off of public resources to commercial interest's.

edit: spelling error
edit to add: For those not familiar with the market, WQEX is owned by WQED, the PBS station. Their programming? 24/7 Home Shopping Network. Is that benefiting the community in some way?

[Raineyb]

2. Considering how the media companies behave via public access tv and low powered radio

I have absolutely no hope that this will open up more channels for the public. More likely, the media companies will use the additional spectrum to hog up even more of the airwaves and monopolize public discourse while finding a way to charge us for the over the air signal.

Regards