Summary

Nat Ostroff, Vice President of Sinclair Broadcast Group, argues that 8VSB's poor multipath performance in urban and indoor environments poses an existential threat to over-the-air broadcasting. Without significant improvement in multipath reception, he warns, broadcasters will fail as digital players and the entire DTV rollout will collapse.

Source document circa 1999 preserved as-is

"If no improvement is made the over-the-air broadcaster will fail as a digital player and the DTV rollout will also fail. Full Stop!!"

 

NAT OSTROFF
Vice-preseident, Sinclair Broadcast Group

In the US the viability of the entire business of broadcasting over the air is currently threatened by alternative sources of video service. These alternative sources did not exist in the 1960s and 70s. In those days the viewer was compelled to raise outdoor antennas and rotors to just watch any television. Today that is a long lost practice that we believe will not return no matter what the program or picture quality. Broadcasting today is a "retail" business. That is, we have to deal with real competition.

We have no reason to believe that the cable will carry us and thus we must plan on over-the-air as our delivery mechanism. Like the retail business in a super market, our product cannot be on the top shelf that requires a ladder to reach, when our competition is at eye and hand level. Which product will the consumer (viewer) chose? I don't think we will be able to sustain a business if the mass audience must go to extra-ordinary efforts to get our product. The point is simply this.

Today's performance of 8VSB in a multi-path environment, like that found in an urban area or indoors, is simply unacceptable. If no improvement is made the over-the-air broadcaster will fail as a digital player and the DTV rollout will also fail. Full Stop!! Instead of arguing over the possible 4-5 db at the fringes, we need to come to the realization that the mass audience supports commercial TV and 8VSB may not be able to reach that mass audience if the multi-path performance cannot be improved by several orders of magnitude. Let us focus on the very real problem of survival of an industry. The issues of coverage at the fringes can be solved much more easily than the issue of multi-path in strong signal areas.


Copyright 1999

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