RE: FCC Orders All TV's To Have Digital Tuners By 2007

["Hakim Madjid" <HMadjid@mindspring.com>]

> I hear that TV set manufacturers have been complaining about how
> much it will add to the price of TV sets.  But I suspect that mass
> production will reduce the price, as it did with UHF tuners in the
> 1960s.

>There is actually a legitimate concern here.  Economies of scale only
>help the manufacturers when the additional costs are related to the
>physical production of the devices.  In the case of digital TV, there
>are literally hundreds of patents which each manufacturer must license
>in order to legally make a DTV receiver -- and the ongoing draconian
>curtailment of fair use rights adds even more patents to the mix.  (Of
>course, it also reduces the value of DTV to consumers even more.)
>Patent licenses account for about 20% of the cost of a typical DVD
>player; digital TVs need almost all of those plus quite a few more --
>and those costs are not reduced by economies of scale, particularly
>when it's a patent-owner's market.

The whole DTV thing is wraped up in *SOOO* much politics it isn't even
funny.
I guess the original Clinton Administration Mandate was because the
Goverment
was very eager to eventually auction off the Analog TV bands.

Of course, IMHO specturm auctions are nonsense, and the amount of revneue
the Federal Government gets from them is miniscule, compared to it's annual
budget.

I'm not sure the average person is *REALLY* interested in DTV, unless it
gets to be a feature of $179 K-Mart TVs.

As far as patent royalties go, I'm not sure how much of a factor that
can be given a large enough economy of scale. Right now, a decent DVD
player can be bought for under $200.


73, de Hakim (N1ZFF)

-GAWollman