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mschuster91yesterday at 9:10 PM1 replyview on HN

> Broadcast forms, on the other hand, are ripe for co-option by profit-seeking through advertising.

The problem is, running broadcast networks is insanely expensive. You need either a lot of antennas (or other distribution points such as coax and fiber) around the country, or you need insanely large and power-hungry antennas (i.e. AM radio), or you need powerful data centers and legal teams.

Someone has to pay the bill, and so it's either some sort of encrypted pay-tv which most people don't want to pay (see: the widespread piracy), or it's advertising, or (like with social media) venture capital being set alight.


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majormajoryesterday at 9:20 PM

Social media doesn't have to be that expensive to run. Countless forums out there for decades.

But especially if you allow audio/video then your moderation costs can get very high if you're aiming for more "broadcast" and less "community."

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