[mythtv-users] Let's get our heads straight here on listings solutions

Rod Smith mythtv at rodsbooks.com
Sat Jun 23 21:32:51 UTC 2007


On Saturday 23 June 2007 15:14, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
>
> According to Wikipedia, the FCC says the total number of licensed
> TV-band transmitters in the US is 8839.
>
> This is one reason why a separate newsgroup for each program source is
> probably impractical, as much as I'd prefer to do it that way.  :-)

That number could be either high or low, compared to what we need:

- Does it include cable/satellite stations (CNN, Sci-Fi, HBO, etc.)? If
  not, the number could be low, although probably by less than 10%.

- What precisely is a "licensed TV-band transmitter"? I'm guessing
  this definition includes more than the TV stations for which we'd want
  to provide data. I say this because there are 210 DMAs (TV markets) in
  the US, and 8839/210 = 42.09. There certainly aren't an average of
  42 OTA TV stations in each DMA.

Overall, I think 8839 is a high estimate. Assuming a dozen stations per DMA 
and 500 cable/satellite stations, that works out to 3020 stations. My guess 
is this would be a high estimate, but I doubt if the number would be less 
than half that.

-- 
Rod Smith
http://www.rodsbooks.com


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