FCC Order to Require Analog TV Warnings at Retail on Fast Track
Unknown factors lent traction and speed to an FCC order, now circulating, that would make CE retailers post analog- cutoff warnings at point of sale near legacy analog TVs still being sold (CD April 12 p1). The order is expected to get a vote at the Commission’s April 25 open meeting unless members approve it earlier.
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Possible cause: At a March 28 House Telecom Subcommittee hearing, Chmn. Markey (D-Mass.) berated Best Buy Senior Vp Mike Vitelli for saying the chain has no labels or signage by analog TVs warning that the sets won’t work after Feb. 2009 without a DTV converter box (CD March 29 p2). Republicans on hand snatched the chance to trumpet HR-608, which would mandate that retailers post warning signs near such sets. But HR-608, introduced Jan. 22 by Reps. Barton (R-Tex.), Upton (R-Mich.) and Hastert (R-Ill.), has gone nowhere. Its 17 or more co-sponsors are all Republicans.
The FCC order borrows most of HR-608’s advisory language, we're told. The provisions, written into the DTV bill the House passed, were stripped out by the Senate. HR- 608 would require retailers to post warnings “in the vicinity” of analog TVs on display. Signs would have to bear a “consumer alert” in “clear and conspicuous print.” Ads, catalogs, direct-mail pieces and websites pitching analog TVs would need to bear the same conspicuous alert, HR-608 says.
The alerts would read: “This TV has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the Nation’s transition to digital broadcasting. The TV should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products.”
If enacted, HR-608 would give retailers 45 days to comply. But it’s guesswork when the FCC order might take effect. It would have the force of law as soon as it’s OMB- approved and published in the Federal Register, we're told, but that’s unpredictable. Retailers backed mandatory analog TV warnings in the DTV bill passed by the House because it provided long lead times for compliance and gave merchants leeway to post advisories near sets, not right on screens. Lead times of as much as 120 days also gave CE makers a chance to automate labeling. But mandatory warnings no longer apply to manufacturers, since sets with analog-only tuners no longer can be imported or shipped interstate under the FCC tuner mandate, which took effect March 1.
Without long lead times, retailers could be in a bind. Not all analog sets shipped before March 1 bear warning labels even under a voluntary CEA program launched last July. Labels on those neither match the exact mandated language of HR-608 nor are the messages they bear likely to be deemed “clear and conspicuous print” if the bill becomes law or the FCC uses the same language in its order. Lead times also are necessary for retailers to build the advisories into ads and direct-mail materials, as the FCC order will require.
Another unknown is how many analog-only sets remain unsold in retail circulation and thus subject to the new FCC order. Best Buy’s Vitelli told the hearing his chain will have sold out of analog sets by May 1. With the tuner mandate in effect, CEA’s Market Research Dept. ceased reporting analog TV shipments. But new CEA figures show 1,155,000 analog sets shipped in the 9 weeks ended March 2, including 34,265 in Week 9 alone and 367,588 in the month before.