No Business Case for HDTV?

Lev13than writes "The head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation argues that there is no business model for HDTV. Speaking at a regulatory hearing being held by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), CBC president Robert Rabinovitch noted that 'There's no evidence either in Canada or the United States that we have found for advertisers willing to pay a premium for a program that's in HD.' In order to cope with infrastructure and programming costs that are roughly 25 per cent higher, Rabinovitch proposes that the CBC start charging cable and satellite companies to carry their signal, and to limit over-the-air transmission. HDTV — good for Best Buy, bad for broadcasters?"

Hooray for sanity

[TodMinuit]

Canadialand is the Nintendo of countries: Graphics simply do not matter.

Re:Hooray for sanity

[__aaclcg7560]

Thank God for that. If it was the Sony of countries, the polar bears would be exploding in HD color.

Re:Pornography is the Driver of Video

[BSarp]

I don't know about you, but unless I'm watching exclusively girl-on-girl porn (and even then), there are some things I absolutely do NOT need to see in all their HD glory.

Re:no common sense case

[jmv]

I see you're not a real connoisseur. My 500$ digital video cable makes the red, green and blue so much richer. It also makes the programs I'm watching subtly more entertaining. You see, that's because the bits are happier when traveling an expensive cable.

Re:No business case for TV

[kfg]

I can't wait to see us beat the Poms in 1080p full color :)

I totally don't know what that means, but I want it.

KFG

Re:No business case for TV

[Anonymous Coward]

ZOMG! Didn't you hear the news? "Pirates" who download television episodes from the interweb help fund ter'rists!

Re:no common sense case

[gantzm]

> Which is a shame, they used to be quite good yet affordable.

History of Radio Shack:

Early Years:

Q: Do you have any 2N222s?
A: Fourth panel, third from the top, second from the left.

Now :
Q: Do you have any 2N222s?
A: Is that the new Razor?

Like all trips, it was good while it lasted.

Big in Japan

[Doc Ruby]

It's not the HD programs that make the bizcase. What makes the bizcase are ever more giant TVs. Which need HD so they don't look crappy when you sit right in front of them. Which therefore need HD programs. Which advertisers will advertise on, because anyone living by the rule "do whatever your mother warned you never to do" is the ideal target market for any product.

Damn socialist Canadians, with their sanity. Their country needs bigger TVs, just to make it look full and warm it up. Where else are the black squirrels supposed to hide when American tourists and Japanese hunters come looking for them as the ice melts?

Dirty Lies!

[Ahnteis]

I buy only the very best MONSTER Cat5 cable. Otherwise, my tubes go slow. =(

Re:No business case for TV

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Meh.

The problem is they'll be recording modern porn at 1080p. I want my old grainy, barely color balanced, and sure as hell not a model porn. Back before they could do all those really raunchy camera angles. Or just stuff shot today in that style.

Genital shot after genital shot in perfect color gets old after the first 20 seconds. God help us if medical imaging ever advances to the point they could follow Mr. Happy inside for his little trip through the flesh tunnel.

Re:And what about for the consumer?

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Don't make me invent a device to thwart that.

Re:No business case for TV

[metalligoth]

Click on the orange if you want to know what the Poms are all about. [homestarrunner.com] ;-)

Re:no common sense case

[CaptKeen]

> Which is a shame, they used to be quite good yet affordable.

History of Radio Shack:

Early Years:

Q: Do you have any 2N222s?
A: Fourth panel, third from the top, second from the left.

Now :
Q: Do you have any 2N222s?
A: Is that the new Razor?

Like all trips, it was good while it lasted.

As you say, it used to be 'You've got questions? We've got answers!'. Now its 'You've got questions? We've got blank stares! And cellphones!'

Re:Dirty Lies!

[Megane]

I buy only the very best MONSTER Cat5 cable. Otherwise, my tubes go slow. =(

Can I get Monster Air for my WiFi?

Re:No business case for TV

[EvilTwinSkippy]

After about 4 posts to various videos, I dare say I seem to have stumbled across the next big thing in porn.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to stock up on brain bleach.

Re:no common sense case

[coaxial]

Monster may help on analog audio, but doesn't do jack for digital.

You're wrong. See, back in the analog world we had to contend with "dirty power." Now in the digital world, we have "dirty bytes." The two ideas are related since they both deal with electricity, but subtley different. See the signal can become corrupted when passing through the box, and you know how dirty it is in there. If you don't know, just crack it open and take a look. Anyway the bytes are made up of bits. Eight bits to be precise. Now as the signal passes through the box it picks up some bits of dirt along with the other bits. And when you put the bits together you get a dirty byte that's EIGHT TIMES DIRTIER. Now when these bytes come out of the box and need to be read. But they need cleaned up before they can be read. Just like how you have to blow the dust off an old book to read it. So you see, the $50 hdmi cable cleans the bytes before their processed. If they weren't cleaned before they get processed by the tv, the tv would have to do that causing it to act slower, just like how it's quicker to read a clean book than a dirty book. Still with me? Okay. I know what you're thinking. The dirt from the bytes has to go somewhere, and you know where that is right? That's right. INSIDE THE TV! That what makes digital equipment so dirty on the inside. And since it's so dirty inside the tv, the bytes inside just keep getting dirtier and dirtier. It would be like trying to dust your house in the middle of a sandstorm. Pretty silly huh? So you see, you're not just cleaning the bytes as the come in, but you're really doing preventive maintence to your tv at the same time. Now you could probabably get by with just buying one $50 hdmi, but if you REALLY want to be safe, you should probably change your HDMI every three months, or whenever you change you're programming package. Whichever comes first.

I know what I'm talking about. I have $100 24k gold plated optical cable, and I can definately see and hear the difference.

Re:Dirty Lies!

[SgtXaos]

You can, but it smells like farts.

Re:No business case for TV

[kfg]

Go for it, Sparky. But I warn ya, under the silicone it's shiney and metal.

KFG

Re:No business case for TV

[lubricated]

>> Now if you'll excuse me I have to stock up on brain bleach.

It's called Rohypnol [wikipedia.org].