Re: Response to Article Published Sept. 15th

Dear Editor,

 

I would like to respond to the editorial Deal Benefits only Comcast (Sept. 15th), by first ensuring that everyone know that CSTV is a CBS entity, and is not owned by Comcast as many think who have written in.  Also, the mtn. is a joint venture between CSTV and Comcast, and broadcast companies across the country do sell access to their subsidiary programming to other providers all the time.  Look at the company Viacom.  Every cable or satellite provider I know of carries the Viacom channels, even though until recently, Viacom was affiliated with CBS.  Walt Disney owns ESPN and ABC, and Time Warner is a cable provider, as well as an outlet for the WB and AOL.  And I don't see other cable providers shunning those channels and services.

 

As an officer for a local tech company, I study the implications of these types of changes that go on. And though I don't understand why Comcast and CSTV didn't, and haven't, been able to get wider coverage for the mtn., you may still be able to get the games if your cable provider won't serve up the mtn. to you, or if you are outside of Comcast's mtn. distribution area.  CSTV recently announced a site that will stream the games via Internet.  And when I say video streams, I'm not talking about the streams we are used to.  These are high quality streams. With the new Media Center PCs, and Microsoft's upcoming release of Vista with Media Center built into it, these types of solutions will become even more viable, and most areas now have some kind of access to broadband Internet.  Once again, the way broadcasting is done is now rapidly changing, from aspect ratios, to HDTV, from DVRs, to Media Centers, from broadcast TV, to OnDemand.  And CSTV and the mtn. happen to be on the very forefront of this change, so we should all expect headaches and confusion with the new technology, but expect to get unprecedented programming in the near future.

 
Tijs Limburg
Chairman and CTO of DMX - Digital Media eXceleron, Inc.

Murray, Utah