roundtable: RE: ENTERTAINING VIDEO O

roundtable: RE: ENTERTAINING VIDEO O

RE: ENTERTAINING VIDEO O

jack@his.com
Thu, 30 Mar 95 20:15:49 

From: jack@his.com
Message-Id: <9503302015.0SGT509@his.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 95 20:15:49 
Subject: RE: ENTERTAINING VIDEO O
To: roundtable@cni.org


Once more, I receive a reply from Matt York that is all ideology.  My 
comments have all been economic.  These comments are clearly not part 
of the same conversation, at least not from my perspective.

This time, Matt declares:

"Mailing cassettes is a stone age option. Its slow and expensive ($5 
per viewer).  The activity on this list is happening due to the speed, 
ease and the low price of e-mail. If we were forced to mail letters in 
envelopes this list wouldn't be happening.  Satellite space does indeed 
have restraints. Prices have increased dramatically in the past few 
months and it is very expensive ($400 per half hour). The most 
significant restraint is that very few people have access to a dish.
 
Think big Jack. We've got wires circling the globe and two nodes (telco 
and cable) terminating in most homes in the country. Telephone wires 
are cheap to use, but have limited bandwidth. Cable TV wires are 
controlled by the television industrial complex. These aristocrats 
dictate what our nation sees and hears on the most pervasive video 
distribution system the world has ever know. It ludicrous that a debate 
over telecommunications policy is restricted to text that reaches an 
audience of a few hundred(?).

Society's collective ability to send large video files around is 
restrained.  Our freedom of the (video) press is controlled by a small 
minority people running   mega corporations. Satellite may indeed be 
the cheapest way currently available for an individual or group to 
disseminate "large video files" to large numbers of people, but it 
shouldn't be. I presume issues like this are at the core of the 
roundtable's concerns."

Here's how I see it:

1) Send video by mail: Technology very available in the US (91% of homes 
have VCR, all homes have mail address).  Cost: approx. $3 - 20 per 
cassette, depending on quantity and method of duplication. + Postage 
$1-3 per cassette.

2) Send by telephone: Technology mostly unavailable.  Some limited fiber 
to the home with bandwidth, mostly not enough bandwidth.

3) Send by cable: Technology available to about 50% of US homes.  
Technology being funded by subscription and advertising.  Virtually all 
cable systems have access channel(s).  Cost of distribution via access: 
$0 to little. Potential of censorship (hardly ever exercised).  This is 
the best option available today, but does not assure delivery to specific 
receivers.

4) Send by satellite: Technology available to about 4% of US homes. 
Transmission costs going up due to failures of rocket scientists. 
Undifferentiated delivery to continental footprint @ about $800 - 1200 
per hour depending on day and time, including uplink costs.

Global considerations: Fiber to the home? Never (technology will change 
before this becomes feasible globally).  Cable to the home?  Transoceanic 
obstacles are considerable, and would require satellite intervention.  
Access is a US policy, not universal.  Satellite to the home?  An 
excellent alternative, especially in the DBS mode, but universal 
availability is at least 25-30 years away.  CURRENT compression 
technologies (not to speak of newer technologies over the next few years) 
are enough to make this affordable for mass distribution, perhaps even 
two-way, in a generation.  Parcel post?  Stone age perhaps, but 
relatively close to universal today.  Affordable in the industrialized 
world.  "Comes out in a ribbon, lies flat on the brush."

Of course, there IS pressure from certain quarters to "think big".  I 
have found that this pressure originates with people who want the public 
to underwrite the delivery technology (at a cost of hundreds of billions 
of dollars) which will enrich software owners and which is certain to be 
even more controlled than Matt experiences cable to be...

--

Jack Hirschfeld                  What do you see when you turn out the lights?
jack@his.com

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