FCC Urges Voluntary DTV Labeling to Spur Consumer Awareness
The FCC Tues. urged CE makers and retailers to “clearly label and identify the tuning capabilities of new TV sets” or use other means to inform consumers “whether or not specific models are able to receive” off-the-air DTV signals. The voluntary labeling directive appears in the newly released text of the Commission order advancing the final DTV tuner mandate deadline by 4 months to March 1, 2007 (CD Nov 4 p6). It is an “interim” step until mandatory-labeling proposals can be taken up as part of the FCC’s 2nd DTV Periodic Review, the FCC said, vowing to address labeling “expeditiously.”
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Consumer awareness of whether a TV can receive off- the-air DTV signals or is analog-only “is critical to ensuring that consumer expectations are met,” the order said: “It would further consumer education if manufacturers and retailers would provide point-of-sale and other marketing information to consumers and/or clearly label new television sets. We believe that such efforts would result in more informed consumer choices about whether to buy DTV tuner-equipped sets.”
CE, which for years has opposed mandatory DTV set labels, told the Congress and the FCC it would support required labels -- subject to 90- to 180-day phase-in -- once a hard analog cutoff date is enacted, the order said. So CE wants the FCC to hold off on a labeling mandate until a hard date becomes law, the order said, without judging the CE proposals’ merits. House DTV legislation would set specific label requirements as part of a massive consumer outreach campaign including public service announcements.
Several commissioners used the FCC’s open meeting Nov. 3 to vent frustration that not enough is being done to ease what they termed rampant DTV consumer confusion on retail sales floors. For example, Comr. Copps said: “Buyers looking for a new set have an understandably hard time figuring out exactly what they need to have in that new set now, to prepare for what’s coming over the air during the decade or more that many of them keep their sets.”
As for Commission acceptance of CE’s suggested March 2007 tuner deadline as the earliest with which set makers could comply, the order said the date is the best balance between TV set production capabilities and FCC interests “in promoting a rapid conclusion to the DTV transition.” March 2007 is only 2 months after the Dec. 2006 deadline the Commission sought, the order said: “We believe the brief two-month period when new analog-only sets can be brought onto the market will still allow the return of the 700 MHz spectrum in a timely manner without overly burdening manufacturers.”
As in past orders, the FCC expressed concern “that if we were to require DTV reception capability in smaller- size and other TV receiver products before the general population of manufacturers is able to properly complete the product development process, it could prove disruptive to the market for those products.” In the order, the Commission said its biggest fears are that poor-quality TV sets will be sold, that manufacturers will “leave the market for these products” or introduce only tuner-less monitors not covered by the mandate.
In expanding the tuner mandate to sets smaller than 13”, the order said, the Commission wasn’t convinced the new rules would be “overly burdensome for the consumer electronics industry to bring these products into compliance with the DTV tuner requirement by the date when all other TV receiver products must include DTV reception capability.” But the Commission did agree with Philips and TTE that the extension not apply to cellphones, PDAs and other devices lacking “the capability to receive broadcast TV service on the frequencies allocated for that service but may be able to receive broadcast TV programming that is re-transmitted over a wireless communications link other than a TV channel.”
The order said to the extent such devices can display broadcast TV programming transmitted over a non-broadcast communications link, “we do not consider a device with that capability to be a broadcast TV receiver.” However, where a cell phone or PDA does have the capability to receive TV programming on channels allocated for the broadcast television service, that device comes under the rules and must comply with the DTV tuner requirement, the order said.