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Re: Why is video inverted for transmission?

>It wouldn't be a problem if the stations operating under the must >carry rule had anything useful to broadcast. In most cases, they >purchase canned programming and advertising, which are just clones of >what you can watch on any of the major networks. Sometimes, they're >even transmitted simultaneously with the major networks. If you've >ever notice the same junk on multiple stations, that's why. The big >draw for these stations is that they can proclaim that they have a >huge audience, primarily due to the cable audience. Drop the rule, >and their broadcast only audience will be comparatively zilch.

One big reason for "Must Carry" are the religious broadcasters. Channel surfing around several years ago, I heard the big cheese at TBN, (Crouch?), talking about their operation and talked about "Must Carry" and thanked the viewers for helping lobby their congressmen. So they're there on your cable to get "God's Word" out to the masses. Even if nobody is watching.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

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Mark Zenier
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snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com (Mark Zenier) hath wroth:

Yep. There's also quite a few channels that are wall to wall advertising that benifit.

Much more interesting is the ratio of actual viewers that watch over the air channels, versus the same channels via cable or satellite. It varies considerably by area, but for metro audiences, methinks it tends to be about 20% or less that watch over the air, while the rest are on cable or satellite[1]. In upscale neighborhoods, over the air viewers are near zero (because they can better afford cable or satellite).

A quick view of the rooftops of most neighborhoods will currently show very few outside antennas. New construction, with CC&R's will show none. Since HDTV broadcasting requires a much better signal, and by implication a functional antenna, than analog TV, one would expect retailers to carry huge numbers of gold plated yagi bird roosts. They don't.

It seems that the listening audience of over the air broadcasting has become the local cable head end. Even that's not really true as most local video feeds come via terrestrial fiber to the headend. Anyway, a clue is that the only way the broadcasters were going to go to digital was if the channels were free, and the cable operators were forced to carry the junk.

[1] Based on personal experience and limited polling. I couldn't find any accurate numbers with Google. Does anyone have any better info? 
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Jeff Liebermann

Must carry was around LONG before the religious TV stations were common. The cable company in Orlando decided to drop the local station, and import a signal from Gainsville in 1987 or 1988. Their customers raised enough 'hell' to get it changed back.

The cable company made the change without informing the local station. (Which was either WIYE or WACX at that time. I can't remember the exact dates and the call letters were changed while I worked there.) As one of the Broadcast engineers at Ch 55 I had to explain, repeatedly to people that the very bad signal they were watching wasn't ours. The only thing that convinced some of them was to get them to turn on a spare TV that wasn't on Cable and tune it to Ch 55 to see that the program was different.

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Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
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Michael A. Terrell

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