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CNETS’ Geoffrey Morrison’s article “How To Get Free HDTV” is very informative with common questions of how to receive and watch better OTA broadcast TV. From how position your antenna correctly or what you need to to still have use of a DVR, read the full article here: How to get free HDTV

A survey released today aims to show cable providers how they can keep losing their influential viewers from cutting the cable. Ideas and Solutions, a Los Angeles-based consultant group for media and technology companies, says that 60% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 were either leaning towards or seriously considering giving up paid television.

Members of Generation Y, also known as millennials born in the mid-1980s or alter, are less attached to traditional TV and look for a “greater cost-benefit equation with alternative viewing platforms,” the study found.

“This is the demographic that  completely  transformed the music and the phone business and has already started to  dramatically reshape the pay TV ecosystem,” said Glen Friedman, president and founder of Ideas & Solutions.
“Clearly, the population that is emerging – and it is a large and dynamic group of more than 70 million consumers – is going to be more receptive to alternatives and much less prone to automatically subscribing to cable.”

He added: “It’s not that the sky is falling, but it certainly warrants a lot of attention, and the subscription-based pay-TV providers, along with the programmers who rely on them for distribution, should really invest the time and the resources to get to know this audience better.”

Antennas Direct, a St. Louis-based digital TV antenna manufacturer, said Thursday it expects bring in $21 million in revenue in 2011, up from $8.7 million in 2010, as more Americans migrate back to over-the-air reception.

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NAB President-CEO Gordon Smith offered encouragement to efforts to develop the next-generation of television technical standards, but cautioned that for the promise of any advancements to become reality, television stations will have to have access to sufficient spectrum.

He made the remarks in his keynote address at the annual meeting of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) in Washington this morning.

“We are fast moving past the age of linear television-only, though, into a new world that is on-demand, interactive, Internet-enabled and three-dimensional, with a public that has an insatiable need for more high quality content. So, finding a way for broadcasters to take part in that new world isn’t optional, it’s a necessity in order to stay competitive with other media in this complex and unpredictable digital world.”

One of ATSC’s major efforts is the development of ATSC 2.0 — or next-generation TV — a new TV broadcasting standard that would be far more efficient in its use of spectrum than today’s DTV system.

“My understanding of ATSC 2.0,” said Smith, “is that it will have things like more efficient compression and the important ability to tie in services that are similar to Internet content or pulling content directly from the Internet itself. We have been talking a lot about broadband and broadcast convergence in the current spectrum debate. The features of ATSC 2.0 sound consistent with that vision of broadcast and broadband being complementary, and maybe even having synergy with each other. So I urge you to move forward rapidly with this program and ensure the receiver manufacturers are committed to making products, as well as broadcasters supplying services.

“Any new system will need to have a companion transition plan that takes broadcasters, manufacturers and especially consumers into account so that they can benefit from the new system in a manageable way. I know that’s not the issue right now, but if a move to a next generation system is eventually seriously contemplated, the transition plan will be a make-or-break issue.”

But, he cautioned, “change can’t happen, and we can’t serve our audiences, if we don’t have sufficient spectrum. It’s the necessary ingredient in the over-the-air part of free, over-the-air television.”

Referring to the FCC’s plan to retrieve TV broadcast spectrum and give it to wireless broadband services through the use of voluntary spectrum auctions, Smith said: “A lot of controversy revolves around the word “voluntary” when it comes to broadcasters giving up spectrum. At the core, we want to protect broadcasters from being forced to give up spectrum involuntarily. And for those that choose not to give up spectrum, we want them held harmless and not disadvantaged by their choice to stay in the business of broadcasting.”

“So, what we’re saying to the government is keep voluntary, voluntary. Broadcasters have a unique identity. We are important voices in our local communities. We live where we broadcast, and we reflect the values of those communities, large and small across the country”.

Oh, and by the way, your plan is also illegal.

Group Owners: FCC’s Spectrum Reclamation Plan Would Be Unlawful

Asks FCC to withdraw proposal to reclaim spectrum for wireless broadband

The FCC has proposed making fixed and mobile services co-primary with broadcasting in the core TV spectrum. Watching how successful the FCC is in opening MSS bands to terrestrial wireless broadband without harming existing spectrum users and those on adjacent spectrum (such as GPS) may give broadcasters an idea of what to expect.

Read the full article here:

DTV antennas Sales are at an all-time high in the US. It’s obvious that the public wants to watch free over-the-air broadcasts. That right was established by The Communications act of 1934. That act preserved that the broadcast airwaves belong to us, the people. The Federal Communications Commission was founded within The Communications Act of 1934 to regulate those airwaves.

Gary Shapiro is president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® is complaining that broadcasters are “squatting” on the RF spectrum, impeding wireless broadband futures.

The chief technology officer of Verizon has stated that the carriage video-on-demand over the cell network will most likely choke it up drastically. What is their solution?

The answer is to convey it, one-to-one, via separate RF signals. It seems obvious that this is a way to seize RF spectrum from OTA broadcasters and sell it to paid video services.

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, concurs with Shapiro saying that broadcasters are not using the spectrum they occupy to its optimum use. The FCC was created to serve the public convenience, interest, and necessity! Doesn’t that make broadcast television, therefore, the “highest use” of the spectrum it is occupying?

Gordon H. Smith, the president of The National Association of Broadcasters [NAB], was spot on in his response to Mr. Shapiro’s comments. He stated that there most likely isn’t enough spectrum in the universe to accommodate this aspiration of transmitting everything to everyone individually.

We have already seen that the broadcasters haven’t got what they deserve far as the spectrum distributions go. The original plan was to put all DTV stations on channels 14-62. They ended up on channels 2-52. That most certainly happened because broadband spectrum idolizers understood that low VHF channels are worthless for digital transmission. Now, broadband spectrum lusters want it all. In their picture-perfect world, they would get the entire spectrum to use for video on demand, and they wouldn’t have the broadcasters to contend with any more. But this couldn’t happen, could it? Stay tuned.