Czech Republic says HD channels shouldn't be delivered OTA for free
By Darren Murph 
posted Nov 26th 2008 1:54PM
posted Nov 26th 2008 1:54PM
Wait, what? In a section of the globe that needs to make every possible effort to up the adoption rate of high-def, we've got this winner trying to hold it down. Zdenek Duspiva, the head of the body overseeing the country's transition to digital broadcasting, has reportedly stated that HD channels should not be beamed out gratis to DTT viewers while speaking at the Teleinformatika conference in Prague. We can't imagine why he would possibly think that restricting the public's access to a better quality format would be beneficial for its technological progress at large, but we're sure glad he's not clocking into the FCC everyday.[Image courtesy of DigiZone]
How in do you enforce OTA HD as a pay service? Scramble it and require people to purchase a descrambler, ala the ON TV days? In totality, FAIL.
Send fake TV detector vans around, complete with phony antennas and dishes and tell people it can tell when you're watching TV without a paid-up license. The British did it.
Seeing as how most European countries' TV scenes feature overwhelming dominance by the state-owned and state-run TV channel(s), which is either supported by general taxes or some other scheme like a TV "license" that people must pay annually, how would charging people for HD OTA be any different than the status quo of charging people for SD OTA?
he thinks its a luxury... what a maroon
What? It should be free!
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