[NU Sports] TV and sports

[Jonathan Hodges]

Verizon is already doing this in select locations on the East Coast (FiOS
service - fiber optic to the doorstep, basically).  AT&T is approaching it
slightly differently, offering fiber optic to the neighborhood level and
then copper wire into homes, although the bandwidth is much higher - hence
allowing them to offer their U-verse TV option.  In Illinois, the the bill
HB1500/SB678 was signed into law in June, which allows more competition
(cable companies get approval at the state instead of local level) but on
the flipside it allows statewide franchises much more access to public right
of ways to construct their network.  Despite the increased competition, many
consumer groups were against this (although improvements were made over the
original version of the bill).  For more information see here:
http://www.freepress.net/statetracker/=IL

In just a few years, expect regular analog cable to go away completely,
leaving only digital cable (which allows much more efficient use of
bandwidth and therefore more channels and more HD).  This means getting
"free" cable will become virtually impossible as you must have a set top box
and smart card to decrypt the content, and these set top boxes will not
allow digital output at all.  Of course this would make "a la carte" channel
selection quite possible, although since the cable/satellite providers are
so against it, I doubt that will ever happen.

Jonathan

On 8/21/07, Dennis W. Brandt <tbng at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> All this is possible now with fiber optics - if you're willing to pay for
> it and the cable company thinks there is a profit in it.
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: CHerron604 at aol.com
>   To: Alan.Abrahamson at nbcsports.com ; clzahn at mindspring.com ;
> tbng at comcast.net
>   Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
>   Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:24 PM
>   Subject: Re: [NU Sports] TV and sports
>
>
>   I'll ask this as a basic cable guy - is it anticipated that there will
> be a point when you have one 'wire' going into your home, providing very
> high-speed internet ?  And will we also be able to download this week's
> episode of 'House' (or whatever) ?  And/or stream the NU/Iowa game, to be
> watched in real-time, or sent to our digital video recorder ?  I guess I'm
> asking - do the experts believe we will ever reach a point where we don't
> need the cable company to bundle programming to our homes ?  Or does HD
> programming require too much bandwidth ?  And does it have to be a coaxial
> connection ?  Can satellite provide the bandwidth ?
>
>   Chuck Herron   Tech '85
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Jonathan W. Hodges
1237 Emerson St Apt 2
Evanston, IL  60201-3577
(847) 736-2449
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