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To: MikeM54321 who wrote (7704)	7/22/2000 10:54:37 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 12823

Mike, re: "bringing to 143 the number of stations making the DTV transition." And that would be 143 out of a universe of how many? Or, approximately what percentage of all TV stations have become digital-ready? After some more thought, I suppose you'd need to further qualify what kinds of stations we're referring to. VHF over the air, multiple mode-of-delivery ones, UHF?, cable-only or satellite-only... Do we include those with no default outlet modes of operation yet, or those who are just waiting-in-ready for digital switched services to materialize? I didn't mean to take you into a sing-song, but it does make for an interesting cross-sectional analysis. FAC

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (7704)	7/22/2000 11:30:45 AM
From: zbyslaw owczarczyk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Here is right link: nationalpost.com

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (7704)	7/24/2000 1:29:01 PM
From: lml	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12823

Hi Mike: I, too, cannot necessarily look to these figures to point out your pre-supposed hypothesis that the transition to DTV is stuck in neutral. Objectively, one would inquire into the nature & quality of the 143 stations that have already made to the move to digital broadcasting. Are they network-owned? Network affiliated? If independent, what content do they carry & how broad is their viewership? In short, I would be more interest in the percentage of viewership that is receiving digital broadcast & not necessarily the percentage of stations transmitting digital streams. As we talked before, the demand for HDTV by the viewing public, or lack thereof, may be predicated by the supply of digital content from which they would derive particular benefit from their investment in a HDTV. So, IMHO, if for example, 25% of the broadcasting stations in this country represented as much as 80-85% of the viewable content that is being transmitted over the air content by the public, I would argue, that the move to DTV is successful. Some smaller stations either will be the last to follow suit, or never do so unless compelled by the eventual death of analog transmission by the end of the decade. Station microeconomics do play a role, and will be weighed against the necessity or desire to invest in the move to digital transmission. Obviously, the microeconomics with the smaller, independent stations weigh against making the move to digital early on. I think graphically, the move to digital by percentages of stations will follow a typical S-curve. I have no data to suggest that's the case, but merely rely upon intuition and traditional market reaction to change. IMHO, I think we are still in the beginning stages of an accelerating trend in the number of stations converting to digital. Soon that acceleration will level over, where there will be a period of constant increases in # of stations transmitting in digital format, followed at the later stages by a slowing trend as the last, most reluctant stations (for financial reasons) making the change. Again, IMHO, were are still at the beginning of the curve, but in terms of percentage of content viewed, I think we are further along than you might think. Without the major networks & their affiliates to spearhead this movement, the rest of the herd would remain entrenched in an analog world for perpetuity. The FCC knows this, and focus, IMHO, should be at the leaders of broadcast content, and not the entire herd, if you will. JMO.