[timmy1376]

 http://www.tvinsite.com/index.asp?la...y=breakingNews


OK, here goes. Mostly about this:

Quote:

The FCC also disclosed that MVDDS licensees would not be required to carry local TV stations but retransmission-consent rules would apply. The agency said it would reconsider its must-carry exclusion if DBS carriers used MVDDS licenses in a manner designed to bypass their must-carry obligations under the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act.

So Echostar or DirecTv could buy up these right??

They could buy only in the markets where they have locals?

This could take the locals off the satellite??

They could broadcast all locals from one place??

Is this like a full power TV tower??

They could also provide data access??

How much would these go for??

Who else would be bidding??

Anywhere I can get a list of the 354 markets they talk about??

Would this be cheaper that going satellite route??


And for all you HDTV guys, would this free up space for additional HD channels??


I guess one big question would be, how long would it take to get functional??


Am I being stupid here on this stuff and way off??

Tim

 

[David McRoy]

This is about using the some of the same spectrum that's currently being used for DBS transmission for terrestrial multichannel television service and other communications services, within specific areas.


Northpoint Communications claims that their data proves that this can be done without interference to DBS services. Hughes and Echostar disputed this. The FCC said it should work. Now Northpoint has to compete as a bidder for access to the spectrum market-by-market with other bidders, conceivably to include Hughes and Echostar.


Whether this could "free-up" spectrum for more HD program services depends on who the winning bidder or bidders are in a specific market and what they plan to do with the spectrum. If the successful bidder for the spectrum in your market is Hughes or Echostar they might decide to offer services that are complementary to their existing DBS services. A third company might decide to compete with the DBS companies by offering much the same fair at competitive pricing. (Just speculating here. It's really impossible to predict the outcome)

 

[timmy1376]

Dave,

How many channels could they put on there if neither E* or D* won?? What kind of quality??

 

[David McRoy]

I don't know. It would depend on the modulation/transport method and the type of digital encoding and compression.


Generally, terrestrial transmission is considered to be less robust than satellite due to the fact that interference sources might lie within the line of sight between the transmitter and the receiver. If this is to be taken into account then you could expect somewhat less payload. On the other habd, who's to stop them from at the same time using a more efficient encoding methosd than those currently used in DBS?

 

[mlewie]

Tim,


Most of your questions can be answered by perusing the FCC's decision which is posted on their home page ( www.fcc.gov ). Be forewarned, its about 260 pages of the most complex analysis I've ever read from the FCC and I've been in this business for almost 20 years.

 

[onemoretime]

You can get a feel for this by only reading the Commissioners' statements at the end (~26 pages out of the 260 pages)
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_publi...C-02-116A1.pdf