End of an Era - Analog Television Yields to Digital
Today, across the United States, the last regular analog television broadcasts are being shut off and by tonight all over-the-air television will only be in a digital format (with a handful of special exceptions for rural areas). Most of the press coverage today has focused on the relatively small number of people who watch TV over the airwaves yet haven’t purchased digital converter boxes. However, the real story is the opportunity it offers providers to deliver faster mobile broadband and other advanced personalized services while leveraging new business opportunties in the Zettabyte era.
To mark today’s milestone, let’s look back and compare the video experience of the early televison era with that of today:
- Early TV Era: Low quality black and white images over-the-air, easily subject to interference. Few choices - you watched what was on. Revenue from selling advertising time. No personalized or on demand video service.
- Today, the future of television is here: Since change can be perceived as risky by some, it’s fitting that this transition coincided with the complete release of the Experience Provider Mega Test results. Members of my team have already blogged about the outstanding results that were achieved for Cisco’s IP video solution:
- IP Video Service Delivery Network - connecting customers to the Service Provider
- Personalized Advanced Video Services - enabling new services and revenue
- Media Centric Data Center - delivering personalized content to the customer
Perhaps, tonight while you watch your digital TV signal (you did buy a converter box, right?), you can read the full report, available here.
June 12th, 2009 might be the end of the analog TV era here in the USA, but for service providers everywhere it’s the start of the “Experience Provider” era!
Posted by Suraj Shetty at 02:04PM PST
Coupon Codes Aug 30, 2009
While it is true that there really was a very minimal amount of people who used analog, it was those who didn’t find it worthwhile to pay for TV. My grandparents themselves were one of these. That was the only option to watch TV and still not pay anything for it.
I guess it just wasn’t worth it for the analog providers. Quality was terrible and they didn’t get too much out of it.