The Community Broadcasters Association spoke out about ’the analo...
The Community Broadcasters Association spoke out about “the analog problem” more than 18 months ago, but CBA’s 2006 filings never urged NTIA to require dual analog and digital tuners, according to documents. CBA said it addressed the issue in…
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Sept. 25, 2006, comments in NTIA’s coupon program rulemaking, CBA said last week in a rejoinder to CE makers (CD March 28 p13). The concern is the basis of its complaint at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that converter boxes lacking dual tuners violate the All-Channel Receiver Act and should be declared illegal. In an Aug. 24, 2006, ex parte the group first urged NTIA to make analog passthrough a required feature in coupon-eligible boxes. NTIA ultimately decided to permit, not require, analog passthrough in coupon-eligible boxes. And CBA now views analog passthrough boxes it urged NTIA to mandate with the same scorn as it views boxes without the passthrough feature, the complaint showed. “The need for action is exceptionally urgent, since noncompliant devices are being sold today and are being subsidized by a federal program that stimulates immediate purchasing because subsidy coupons expire only 90 days after being mailed by the government,” CBA said. Though CBA’s filings at the NTIA didn’t advocate boxes with dual tuners, they also never said that CBA thought that analog passthrough was sufficient for assuring “the continued reception of analog signals” after Feb. 17, 2009, Peter Tannenwald, CBA’s outside counsel, told us in an e-mail Friday.