| NamePros Member Location: NJ Join Date: Jul 2007 | Digital TV offers free channels
Are we in a competing space (with internetTV) ?
amNY.com
Digital TV offers free channels
By Jessica Troiano
Special to amNewYork
5:53 PM EDT, August 14, 2008
Now you don't have to steal cable to get dozens of free channels.
The public airwaves carry a lot more options thanks to the transition to digital television. Networks are now able to multicast -- broadcast to several channels at once. A handful of viewing options have become dozens.
The digital transition will be final Feb. 17, when the old analog television signals are silenced forever. By then viewers who don't have cable or satellite TV will have to buy a digital converter box or a digital-capable television.
Surfing the digital public airwaves means flipping through channels like 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, 5-1, 5-2, and so on.
The newfound wealth of broadcasting space could even rival cable, but that means the broadcast networks need to generate desirable programming. Most of the programming so far on the subchannels has either failed or been less than exciting, focusing on news or weather.
One of the problems is the networks don't know how to make money from the new space. As they develop the extra channels they also have to strike deals with cable providers to run them, otherwise only households without cable will see them -- a small piece of the pie. Further, if networks draw viewers to three channels instead of one, they cannibalize themselves.
"The whole advertising and television business is being splintered," said Paul Kagan, a media analyst and head of PK Worldwide Media. "It makes it tougher for each splinter to survive on its own."
So the networks are likely to target niche audiences. Already WNBC/Ch. 4 has announced a 24-hour news station and WPIX/Ch. 11 has teamed up with a Spanish-language company to air content on one of its substations.
"[Multicasting] is a world where people are flocking to specific topics or subjects," said Brian Steinberg, TV editor of Advertising Age.
One clear winner in multicasting is public television, which doesn't have the same financial considerations as the commercial networks.
"There is more programming than we have shelf space for," said Cynthia Fenneman, president and chief executive of American Public Television. "This allows us to have a 24-7 channel of what used to be relegated to weekends."
Create TV, launched by American Public Television in January 2006, is a 24-hour channel devoted to cooking, crafts and travel. The channel rebroadcasts some of public TV's most popular shows, such as the cooking series "Lidia's Italy" and home-improvement stalwart "This Old House."
There have already been failures as networks experiment. The Tube, a music-video channel that harkened back to the early MTV days, was a digital subchannel distributed by Tribune Broadcasting. The channel went bust in October because of poor ad revenue.
A lack of commercials is a selling point, however, for public television. Fenneman said that focus groups liked that Create TV's shows were "uninterrupted."
In addition, public television's multiple topics -- news, entertainment, science, children's programming -- lends themselves to diversification.
"PBS has a very broad brief," Kagan said. "Even though everything was carried on one channel, it almost felt like many channels because of the varied subject matter."
Dividing the content into different channels may draw first-time viewers who are interested in those specific topics, Kagan said.
"The PBS network might actually be able to accumulate a larger total audience by having specialist multicast channels," he said. "It is not subject to the same risks as other broadcasters, because it isn't vulnerable to loss of advertising if it sends viewers to specialist channels."
Local PBS affiliate WNET/Ch. 13 hopes so.
"We're taking a very strong inventory that doesn't get enough exposure on the analog side because of limited access," said Kent Steele, executive director of broadcasting at WNET. "In the long run, this will grow the audience for 13 because we're able to put more product out there."
Copyright © 2008, AM New York
|
