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Americans are increasingly turning to the Internet for their television.  As television manufacturers adapt to the demands of their customers, Internet television technology (IP-TV) will become a leading source of television show viewership in America. 

The Greenhouse Internet TV project will position northern Nevada to take advantage of this transition, by:

• Constructing a high-tech, L.E.E.D. Certified facility, dedicated to producing the newest and best in movies, television, animation and games for business, entertainment and education
• Making the community a “greenhouse” for new and growing businesses that create television programs and software to manage content on the Web

The benefits of this “shovel-ready” project are three-fold:

• It would bring more than $100-million into the northern Nevada economy – Currently, with very little effort, production companies are bringing productions to Nevada and spending more than $110-million, mostly in Las Vegas and Clark County. The consolidation of production capabilities and the marketing built into this project will insure rapid growth in the number of productions in northern Nevada, conservatively estimated at $100-million.
• Create 2,400 jobs in northern Nevada - The Greenhouse Project has the potential to create as many as 50 jobs in the film, television and IP-TV industry. The local production business generated by the project and out-of-state business attracted to Nevada will create work for more than 2,000 carpenters, electricians, designers, artists and more.
• Meeting the Future – By including Web development and IP-TV into the Institute and infrastructure of this project, the region will build a reputation for having highly-skilled and imaginative people, who are trained and experienced in advanced production, IP-TV and other emerging communications technologies.  This will lead to growth of the communications technology industry in northern Nevada, the next “Silicon Valley.”

Free Wireless Internet – Additionally, SNCAT will lobby for free, community-wide, high-speed wireless Internet in the Truckee Meadows.
Just prior to the change of administration, the FCC was debating the release of unclaimed bandwidth that would be made available through the digital transition of the broadcast stations across the country.  Nearly all of the broadcast channels in this market have made the transition to the digital tier and the bandwidth is available right now. 

At 400,000 residents, Reno is a good, mid-sized market for testing new products, services and technologies.  Blockbuster is currently running a market test of their Blockbuster Media, before going nationwide.  This area would be a perfect place to experiment with community-wide free, wireless Internet.  Reno is a big enough area to determine what the impacts would be.  The free wireless Internet would immediately erase the digital divide, based on class, socio-economics and national origin.  It would provide a spectacular opportunity to expand educational technology on the Web and advance IP-TV as a broadcast function.    

 If the experiment proves too costly or impinges unfairly on the market share of other Internet service providers, then there is little lost with this market and the FCC could use this test case to determine whether or not to deploy free wireless Internet in other, larger communities.