CE Makers Lobby FCC for Changes In DTV Education Order
Consumer electronics makers have stepped up lobbying as they try to persuade the FCC to give them more time to comply with new rules on analog cutoff advisories packaged with products. The DTV consumer-education order, released March 3, takes effect when published in the Federal Register.
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Under the order, companies making, importing or shipping interstate DTV sets and devices designed to work with them must “include information with those devices explaining to consumers what effect… the full-power DTV transition will have on their use,” the FCC order said (CD March 5 p13). As with requirements that cable, satellite and IPTV providers put cutoff notices in monthly bills, CE makers can pick the form material takes, the FCC said. Cable, satellite and IPTV providers have 30 days to comply once the rule takes effect. CE makers must comply immediately.
In a March 5 visit, CEA President Gary Shapiro urged that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin grant CE makers the same 30- day grace period, a March 6 ex parte filing shows. Sony and Pioneer backed that position in four visits, other filings show. “It is imperative that manufacturers have sufficient advance notice in order to configure machinery along the production chain,” CEA said.
CEA fears the order’s “overly broad scope,” Shapiro told Martin. “If taken literally,” the new rules would cover flash memory devices, since some new TVs now have USB or SD memory card ports, CEA said. “It would appear to apply to camcorders, personal computers, iPods, and home theater systems,” it said. If it enforces the new rules, the FCC would be overstepping authority set by the federal appeals court on its broadcast-flag order, CEA said. It urged the agency to rewrite the rules to clarify that they apply only to devices covered by the FCC DTV tuner mandate.
A CEA spokesman didn’t respond to our queries as to whether his group regrets not having done more during the comment period before the order. CEA’s March 6 filing was only its second in the FCC DTV education docket (07-148). Its first didn’t oppose CE mandates or challenge commission authority to impose them. CERC filed repeatedly in the docket, as did members Best Buy, Circuit City and Target. The docket’s most active participant was NAB, which filed 21 times starting in August. Cable, satellite and IPTV providers also filed repeatedly. In the end, NAB’s many filings didn’t persuade the FCC to drop mandates on running public service announcements. Verizon, an active commenter, strongly opposed mandates that it include bill stuffers, but lost on them.