Paid OTA TV Expanding - How it Impacts Free OTA TV

[Antenna Man]

Time for another AWESOME video from Tyler the Antenna Man!


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8Ez3GFZnYw


Direct YouTube Link - Paid OTA TV Expanding - How it Impacts Free OTA TV
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[Radioguy41]

Good luck with that. It's free now and viewership is falling like a stone so let's start charging? Yeah, that'll stop em from leaving.

 

[primestar31]

I'll NEVER pay for OTA tv.

 

[harshness]

Until NextGen TV advances beyond lighthouse status, I think it premature to discuss what might happen five+ years down the road.

Many of the larger markets don't have the spare bandwidth to support such an effort so I'm not sure Evoca is barking up a viable tree.

 

[Justin Hill]

They did mention that ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV has room for over 100+ digital subchannels. I hope they reserve the lower subchannel numbers open for free TV, leaving the higher subchannel numbers open for encrypted subscription TV...

 

[harshness]

They did mention that ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV has room for over 100+ digital subchannels.

"They" made lots of noise about what could theoretically be done. I'd be surprised if they could get much past 75 SD channels as a practical matter. Of course if your "channels" are static images with simple or no sound, maybe, but who's going to count SD channels five years from now?

 

[comfortably_numb]

This is DOA. Gen Z thinks OTA is "illegal," if they've even heard of it at all. I have a 23-year-old co-worker who had no idea what it was and when I explained to him that we have an antenna on the roof bringing in 82 free channels he said "That sounds super sus."

Kids these days.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I'll NEVER pay for OTA tv.

Give me Playboy OTA and we'll talk

 

[comfortably_numb]

Oops, meant to say Gen Z in my previous post. Have corrected it.

 

[harshness]

Give me Playboy OTA and we'll talk

I remember picking up a couple of OnTV films in the clear in my youth.

 

[SamCdbs]

As Tyler covers in his video, this has been tried many times before. All such efforts end in bankruptcy.

First, understand this in NOT about paying for current OTA TV, either the big networks (CBS, NBC, etc.) nor the current "netlet" rerun channels (Decades, Antenna TV, etc.). It is about replacing some of those "netlet" channels with scrambled signals of channels traditionally found on cable, DBS, and linear TV cord switching providers.

If you go to their page, its 30 ish channels, many of them things that are super niche. Stuff like the Cowboy Channel, World Fishing Network, and Recipe TV. Only Root (the local RSN in that area) NFL Network and the Weather Channel are what I would consider even close to mainstream channels, and that is being generous.

For $34/month? Pluto and STIRR are free.

And, of course, you have to live in the OTA range of EVERY channel, including LPTV, in a market to get this to work fully. That is not really that many people, and most people that live that close to town, have good internet.

 

[navychop]

This may be a way for some folks to get their sports fix.

Also, remember the camel’s nose and the tent.

 

[harshness]

This may be a way for some folks to get their sports fix.

What RSN is going to want to do business with such a small reach?

Also, remember the camel’s nose and the tent.

The tent is too just crowded at this point.

 

[Jim S.]

What RSN is going to want to do business with such a small reach?

Well, they're not being seen on Dish right now, or maybe ever again, so that's quite a few lost subscribers. (Assuming, of course, that they haven't figured out where to get bootleg streams by now...)

 

[harshness]

I'm not entirely convinced that the stations yet have the bigger issue of conditional access figured out. While NextGenTV touted conditional access amongst its provisions, has it been implemented in a universally usable way?

I'm having some difficulty imagining how network tuners are going to implement pay TV.

 

[primestar31]

I'm not entirely convinced that the stations yet have the bigger issue of conditional access figured out. While NextGenTV touted conditional access amongst its provisions, has it been implemented in a universally usable way?

I'm having some difficulty imagining how network tuners are going to implement pay TV.

I'm not convinced they even know WTF they are doing with implementation of ATSC 3.0. Everything I read about it, leads me to believe they are completely CLUELESS. They seem to just be randomly throwing things "at the wall" and see what sticks.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I'm not entirely convinced that the stations yet have the bigger issue of conditional access figured out. While NextGenTV touted conditional access amongst its provisions, has it been implemented in a universally usable way?

I'm having some difficulty imagining how network tuners are going to implement pay TV.

Probably with BISS key. Seems to be the most popular encryption method today.

 

[navychop]

I think they saw the pot of gold and suddenly saw reason to invest in ATSC 3 equipment. No other reason but the Benjamins. They have a pretty good idea how they’re going to get a cash flow. But see no reason to spread that word, and maybe scare off a few people.

Done right, they can snatch back custies from cable.

 

[NashGuy]

I'm not convinced they even know WTF they are doing with implementation of ATSC 3.0. Everything I read about it, leads me to believe they are completely CLUELESS. They seem to just be randomly throwing things "at the wall" and see what sticks.

"CLUELESS" may be an exaggeration but I don't disagree with you.

 

[harshness]

Probably with BISS key. Seems to be the most popular encryption method today.

BISS is not part of the ATSC 3.0 specifications. Adding BISS would logically require some fairly deep penetration into the tuner's inner workings or at least a crack at the raw data coming out of the tuner and then some way to inject it back into the TV for display.

NextGenTV specifies something called "Simulcrypt" (the scheme used by DVB) for both broadcast and broadband uses. My question is more about whether or not this has been implemented in current tuners and/or whether or not it can be.