Earlier DTV Tuner Mandate Deadline Unworkable, CE Makers Say
Accelerating to late 2005 the date when 100% of 25- 36” TV sets must have built-in ATSC tuners isn’t achievable on such short notice, CE makers told the FCC in reply comments in the Commission’s rulemaking (05-24) on whether the DTV tuner mandate schedule should be revised. But broadcasters, who had urged the earlier compliance date on 100% of the sets if the FCC granted CE’s petition to scrap the July 2006 deadline for 50% of such sets to be ATSC-equipped, shot back that CE makers’ references to their 18-month production cycles as precluding a late 2005 deadline “are a red herring.”
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CEA, the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition (CERC) and several individual set makers said again that March 2006 was the earliest possible date by which they could muster 100% compliance. “Quite frankly, we would like to move up the 100% requirement to an earlier date if it was at all within the realm of feasibility,” Panasonic told the Commission. “But March 1 is less than 9 months from today, and there will be even less time when the Commission concludes this proceeding. There is just no way to make an earlier date feasible.” Panasonic said it’s not just a design issue as some opponents argue, but “a time-consuming and expensive process to establish specifications for each product, change manufacturing lines, secure orders from retailers, order parts consistent with the manufacturing and shipping schedules, etc.”
TTE and other makers agreed, saying manufacturers, to ensure delivery of product for the 2005 holiday selling season, already have decided what models they'll offer. Moreover, TTE said, retailers are in the midst of placing orders, “and based upon product placements to date, many manufacturers already are starting to give suppliers projected purchase quantities through the end of the year.” The bottom line, TTE said, is that “simply advancing the 100% requirement to late 2005 cannot be done without enormous and unnecessary risk to both consumers’ expectation that the products they demand will be available and the soundness of the 2005 holiday economy.”
However, in calling manufacturers’ references to their 18-month cycles a “red herring,” NAB and MSTV said makers should already have been preparing to include a DTV tuner in at least 50% of their 25-36” sets by the existing deadline of July 1 this year. Broadcasters said CE also acknowledges it can meet a 100% deadline by March 2006, broadcasters said. “Thus, manufacturers need not prepare an entirely new production line or design,” the groups said. “There is accordingly little merit” to claims by Philips that advancing the 100% requirement to a date earlier than March 1, 2006, would not allow production line changes and would be “at odds” with arguments that the 18-month cycle precludes late 2005 compliance, NAB/MSTV said.