WHDH blows off Leno

[Dave Doherty]

Hi Maureen-

I agree. Nobody would use today's iPhone quality video exclusively, especially for high-profile events like the Super Bowl.

But broadband keeps getting broader, and video compression keeps getting better, so it's not hard to envision a near- to mid-term future in which network-quality video is available for display on HD sets. Off-air-only reception accounts for something under 10% of the total TV household count, as I understand it. That means that more than 90% can get the show some other way. 

Why couldn't NBC contract to deliver Leno over FiOS/Cox/Comcast/Charter, completely bypassing the local affiliates, or use its existing alternate CATV-only channels to air the show? There's not a technical reason I can imagine, Should a local affiliate decide not to run the show, I would think NBC would be within its rights to air it through any alternate venue it chooses. 

-d


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Maureen Carney 
  To: Dave Doherty ; Boston Radio Group 
  Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 11:01 PM
  Subject: Re: WHDH blows off Leno


  I was at a conference for VCI (a traffic software package used by CSN) last summer and there were more than enough people afraid of just that - content going directly to BlackBerry or iPod/iPhone. While that's possible who would use that exclusively? Think about this - would a group of people gather around an iPhone to watch the SuperBowl if there were a big screen TV available nearby? No way! I don't dismiss it out of hand. I personally don't have a BlackBerry or iPhone and don't intend on getting one, but enough people do and are used to watching things in snippets. I just wonder in a few years if anyone will have the patience to sit through and watch an entire NBA game or even a 30 minute newscast.