Recent survey shows broadcasters are into multicasting
Multicasting is a bad word around here, and even if you don't know what it means, we'd bet that you've seen it before. You know, your kicking back watching your favorite team and just when the action really gets goin', your beautiful HD picture turns into big ugly blocks as all the players move towards the ball. At that point all the expensive equipment at the stadium and your entire investment in your HDTV is all for naught, as your local affiliate decided it'd rather provide a useless 24 hour weather channel than deliver you the big game, sans blocks. We've all seen it happen and the beauty of the situation is usually the cable co' or satellite provider gets the blame instead of good 'ol News Channel 8. If you're one of the lucky few who doesn't know what this is like, according to a survey of broadcasters there's a good chance that you will, as 55 percent of those broadcasters surveyed said it had plans to multicast. The same survey indicated that only 66 percent planned to upgrade its facility so it could actually generate some HD content -- rather than just pass on the network feed. Unfortunately no one surveys us because no one cares, and the only thing we can do in protest is to not watch the useless channel -- like we need another 24 hour weather channel.
