COURT RULING ON DTV TUNER MANDATE DUE BY YEAR-END, SHAPIRO SAYS
Although the outcome is uncertain in CEA’s suit before the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., that seeks to invalidate the FCC mandate of DTV tuners in all NTSC receivers by July 2007, a court decision is likely before year-end, CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro told us in an interview.
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If the court rules in the Commission’s favor that the FCC was “totally valid” in imposing the DTV tuner mandate, Shapiro said, CEA would have the option of seeking an en banc hearing or appealing the case to the Supreme Court. If the court rules the mandate wasn’t valid because the FCC lacks jurisdiction under the All-Channel Receivers Act, then the DTV tuner mandate would become “a moot issue,” Shapiro said. However, if the court were to decide that the FCC’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious,” he said, the Commission could revisit issue if it chose to. Shapiro said “a lot of our concerns” have stemmed from the fact that the CE industry asked the FCC that if DTV tuners were to be included in TV receivers as a means of jump-starting the DTV transition, that such rules be made voluntary: “Within 3 weeks, all of a sudden it became a mandate.” He said the FCC based the decision on data furnished by the NAB and others that vastly underestimated possible implementation costs.
The plug-&-play agreement enacted recently by the FCC “only goes so far as to cover what a manufacturer’s obligations are if he chooses to use the phrase ‘cable- ready,'” Shapiro said. The remark was in reply to our question whether enactment of plug-&-play rendered CEA litigation moot. By comparison, Shapiro said, the DTV tuner mandate would cover “every TV set sold eventually” as well as every VCR and other devices with a built-in NTSC tuner, including DVD recorders.
Shapiro said the “bottom line” was that the CEA fielded no requests from its membership that the suit be withdrawn “and it’s now before the court.” Shapiro said he felt “very validated” earlier this week watching oral arguments before the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. (CD Sept 17 p7). Shapiro said he was encouraged that the 3 judges, from “their body language and their questions, clearly wondered about the wisdom of the FCC’s action on mandatory DTV tuners… Whether it will rise to the legal challenge of making no sense, which is that the tuner mandate was arbitrary and capricious, is the open question.”