Cable Over the Air

At last week’s CEA Line Show, I was reminded again about that other industry that uses  wireless and cable transmission to distribute content onto a flat LCD screen.

Admittedly, some of my television watching has been replaced by web browsing and the focus of this blog has been on apps and Internet, rather than TV channels and set-top boxes, but I was still stunned by ESPN’s 3D sports channel.

In other words, there’s still much to get excited about in the non-interactive, non-social TV medium.

This became clearer when I met briefly last week with industry pioneer and disruptive force Jack Perry, whose company Syncbak has worked out a clever solution that would let local TV stations monetize their live transmissions on the Web.

As with most things involving communications, this story about retransmitted broadcast signals includes well-intentioned but conflicting public policy, litigious players, and the Internet making everything more complicated and the stakes higher.

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