CE on Tenterhooks As FCC Weighs Earlier Tuner Mandate Deadline

The Commission proposed accelerating the tuner deadline as “consistent with the need to promote a rapid end to the DTV transition.” It picked Dec. 2006 since it’s “not later than the statutory target date” of Jan. 1, 2007 -- a deadline for return of the analog spectrum long on the books, but mutable if Congress legislates a hard cutoff date.

Mandating DTV tuners in smaller screen TVs “would not force substantial increases in the prices of such products,” the FCC has said. Economies of scale needed to bring down the incremental price of DTV-equipped analog sets will have been achieved far earlier in much larger sets, the FCC said. “We therefore believe that the price increases for small screen and other receivers will be more modest,” the FCC said in its rulemaking.

Broadcasters largely support the accelerated FCC schedule on grounds that each day the law lets analog-only sets be sold makes it tougher to implement a hard cutoff. Understandably, major CE makers have called the Commission’s arguments flawed. Their bottom line is that they can’t achieve the tuner mandate earlier than March 2007 without unacceptable risk of quality problems and needlessly high prices for consumers.

Whatever the various arguments’ merits, there’s evidence the Commission isn’t likely to stick to its desired Dec. 2006 deadline when it order comes later this week. CE interests recently got a supportive poke when the House DTV bill called for the same March 2007 cessation on analog-only sets as CE as a prelude to a Jan. 1, 2009, analog cutoff. The Senate bill sets the analog cutoff at April 2009, but is silent on when analog-only sets no longer could be sold. However, that topic is expected to be addressed in a catch-all DTV policy bill due soon from the Senate Commerce Committee.

Language in the FCC record suggests reluctance to buck CE demands for an 18-month development cycle on new sets. Even as the FCC last June rejected CEA’s petition to kill the July 2005 deadline by which 50% of 25"-36” sets would have to have DTV tuners, it also rejected broadcaster calls for a deadline earlier than CE’s desired March 2006 date for 100% of such sets. In granting the March 2006 date, the FCC acknowledged CE maker arguments that “the lead time associated with the development of new products, and particularly the time needed to establish specifications, change manufacturing lines, and order parts, would not allow the industry generally to meet a 100% compliance requirement before March 1, 2006. It makes little sense to require products to be on the market before the general population of manufacturers can deliver them.”

The Commission said it fears if CE makers can’t meet such tight deadlines, they might stop making such products or shift to tuner-less monitors. “Such a result would be disruptive to our goal of ensuring that consumers are able to receive DTV signals and could serve to delay the DTV transition,” not hasten it, the FCC said.

Mindful of CE makers’ time constraints, the FCC in June set notably brief deadlines for comments and replies on the hastier deadline proposals. This was to let the FCC “conclude action in these proposals in an expeditious manner so as to afford manufacturers the maximum time to prepare to comply with new rules.” But the proposals have languished on the FCC shelf for nearly 5 months, trumped by major telecom mergers, hurricane blowby and other issues.