How The Grinch Saved TV

Posted on December 9, 2014 in ATSC News

With Apologies to Dr. Suess

Every ATSC member
from sea to sea
liked TV a lot…

But the Grinch,
who lived near DC,
did NOT!

The Grinch hated TV! The whole TV season!
Now, please don’t ask why.
No one quite knows the reason.

It could be that his cable bill was too high.
It could be, perhaps, his town has no BestBuy.

Whatever the reason could be,
The Grinch couldn’t stop hating TV.
And he especially hated the ATSC!

Staring down from his cave
with a sour, Grinchy frown,
he saw all the engineers
gathering in town.

He watched them in meetings,
in labs and in field trials.
“And they’re making it better!”
he snarled with a sneer.
“The future of TV! It’s practically here!”

Then he growled,
with his Grinch fingers drumming,
“I must find a way
to keep ATSC 3.0 from coming!”

For, in the near future, he knew…
all the broadcasters and TV makers
would revive TV anew.

The more the Grinch thought
about what TV’s future would bring,
he kept thinking and thinking,
“I must stop this whole thing!”

On his ramshakle sleigh
he fled down to DC
where the TV engineers
all gathered at the ATSC.

When he arrived at the meeting,
with a smile most unpleasant, he slithered and slunk,
TV’s future, said he, stink, stank, stunk…

He questioned their vision and every revision.
“We don’t need 4K! Or mobile!”
“No targeted ads! No robust transmission!”
He stole their spectrum, their chips and their scopes.
He even took their pocket protectors and dashed all their hopes.

The Grinch was a thug and a smug thug at that.
“Pooh-pooh to ATSC!” he was Grinch-ish-ly humming.
“They’re finding out now that three-dot-oh is not coming!

“TG3 is meeting again… I know just what they’ll do!
“Their mouths will hang open a minute or two
“Then all the ATSC members will all cry boo-hoo!”
“That’s a noise,” grinned the Grinch,
“That I simply must hear!”

So he paused. And the Grinch put a hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It started in low. Then it started to grow…
But the sound wasn’t sad!
Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn’t be so! It was merry-very!

And the Grinch popped his eyes!
What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every ATSC member, the tall and the small,
They all pulled together! They developed the standard!
He hadn’t stopped TV’s future from coming at all!

Somehow or other, it came just the same!
Then the Grinch thought of something
he hadn’t before…
“Maybe TV’s future,” he thought,
“means a whole lot more!”

It means that broadcasters will thrive.
Cable will too.
And the Whos down in Who-ville,
with their tablets and big-screens,
will love TV’s new view.

And what happened then…?
Well, in DC they say
He saw the light and loved TV that day!

All of the sudden, he was filled with compassion.
The Grinch understood their commitment and passion.

And he embraced all the aspects of next-gen TV!
And he himself,
The Grinch, joined the ATSC!

Posted in ATSC News