Digital Television Can’t Save Televsion
I read today an interesting little Reuter’s backgrounder about KNBC Channel 4.4 in Los Angeles. First some background on the backgrounder: when the FCC first started talking about allotting frequency spectrum to stations, there was some controversy about how they had to use it. The FCC favors high-definition programming which takes up a lot of data, the stations favored regular def but multicasting. KNBC is experimenting with doing both.
As a result, if you live in L.A. and you have a digital set with a good antenna, you can watch NBC 4.0, which is the HD feed, and 4 other NBC channels which include a pretty sharp standard def signal, a 24-hour weather map/traffic map, and KNBC News RAW. That’s the interesting one. News RAW, according to Reuters:
…features a loop of two to three hours of original material a day, plus unfiltered, uninterrupted live coverage a la CSPAN of major local news conferences and other events, complete with the not-for-broadcast chatter and technical talk (”MSNBC, do you copy Newscopter 4?”) among various production staffers.
The idea behind it is to supplement local coverage. If you are disappointed because the city council meeting story is only 20 seconds long, KNBC 4.4 will give you the whole meeting.
It’s an idea which is noble and utterly superfluous at the same time. Because let’s face it, this information could be available on the thing you’re using now, you know, the internets. The audience for city council meetings surely would be ardent enough to tear themselves away from the TV and watch on their computer screens.
The same obviously goes for the 24-hour weather map.
If you are going to multiplex, I think PAX is the best way to go. PAX has a digital multiplexed channel which broadcasts forgotten TV from the past like GREEN ACRES and MAMA’S FAMILY. No one is going to stream this stuff on the Internet (well they might, but old TV is the least interactive media there is) so why not put it where it belongs, on your living room screen? And you can’t tell me that these programs are too expensive to acquire. The warehouse will pay you to free up the space.
I’m with the FCC (and you won’t see that phrase from me often), use the bandwidth for HD. HEROES sucks in SD.