Is it Cheaper to Go All-Digital, All-HD and All-Switched?

A participant on the NCTA’s switched digital video (SDV) briefing call last week asked why the cable industry isn’t moving more quickly to all-digital broadcast given the bandwidth savings. Verizon’s making the shift, why not traditional cable operators? The answer is that cable companies as a whole have a lot more existing analog customers, and [...]

Little-Known Updates on the DTV Transition

The lunchtime speaker at last week’s Policy Symposium was Meredith Baker, acting administrator for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). And although the session didn’t have much to do with the rest of the conference, Ms. Baker was chock full of updates on the federal DTV converter box coupon program.
First, the [...]

Presidents’ Day Reading

Favorite links from a holiday weekend of reading:
Broadband Reports - $2 billion from Intel may bring national WiMAX network
Light Reading - Comcast aiming to implement SDV in 15% of network this year
EngadgetHD - Latest research confirms it – DVRs increase TV consumption
Ars Technica - Retail sales staff don’t know much about the DTV transition

The Digital TV Transition: One Year to Go

This is my official, one-year-until-the-digital-TV transition post. Consider it part primer, part Motorola perspective.
Why are we having a digital TV transition?
The original impetus behind moving to all-digital television was a regulatory push to reclaim broadcast channels for public/civic use. However, with the rapid growth of HDTV, on-demand television and streaming video on the [...]