HD Radio and its licensees ’shall adopt in the marketplace’ a DAB...
HD Radio and its licensees “shall adopt in the marketplace” a DAB protection technology to prevent “the disaggregation and indiscriminate redistribution” of content before receivers with TiVo-like functionality are marketed “or made available through interstate commerce.” So says a…
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discussion draft being floated by Senate Democrats of a substitute for a telecom bill already introduced (S-2686) by Senate Commerce Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) that would address the audio flag debate on digital radio much differently. The Democrats’ draft doesn’t say how a marketplace solution would be negotiated or made legislatively binding, but it specifically stresses any such solution must not make existing HD Radios obsolete and that copy protection can’t impede the HD Radio rollout or completion of DAB service rules at the FCC. Its marketplace approach is in marked contrast to the Stevens bill, which would direct the FCC to convene a multi-industry “digital audio review board” to hold good-faith negotiations toward drafting a consensus proposal on an audio flag. CEA and HRRC have criticized the review board proposal in the Stevens bill as “vague and frail,” because it’s unclear who would determine when a consensus has been reached and “by what metric.” CE also suggested it’s naive to think a review board can finish its work in 1-1/2 years -- as the Stevens bill would mandate -- noting that video broadcast flag took many more years to complete in good-faith negotiations.