TV via net: A better bet than multicasts?
June 25th, 2006Digital TV could give us five or six times as many local channels as before. But without a federal mandate for cable carriage of the new multicast channels, station owners may be in no hurry to add them.
Even as broadcast technology marches ahead, the notion that broadcasters should actually broadcast is seeming rather quaint. Some station owners, more jazzed about delivering programming via the internet, have put multicasting on the back burner:
…the Big Four networks and stations for the most part are holding their best content for Web distribution, with some executives saying they believe they can reach more viewers nationwide on the Internet than they can through the TV, since most cable operators only carry a station’s primary signal.
“If people are going to put time and energy into creating a channel, at the moment, why not create it for the Internet instead of waiting for multicast?” said a senior executive at a Big Four network who asked not to be identified.
Still, several networks and stations are testing the multicast waters, Multichannel News reports, and some have negotiated agreements for cable carriage.
• Link: Multichannel News