Paul Gluckman

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 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.

The Office of Management and Budget Thursday approved “without change” the FCC DTV consumer education order. Completion of OMB’s “information collection review,” sought by the FCC in a March 12 “emergency” request, lets the order apply immediately. It tells broadcasters to run public service announcements on the DTV transition, documenting the effort in quarterly reports at the FCC. Cable, satellite and IPTV providers’ monthly bills must include stuffers on the analog cutoff. CE makers must pack printed advisories with DTV sets and other gear. Cable, satellite and IPTV providers have 30 days to comply. CE makers must comply immediately.

The FCC hopes the Office of Management and Budget will approve a request that its DTV consumer education order take effect Thursday. On March 12, the agency sought “emergency” March 27 OMB approval of the order, a step it called “essential to the responsible and effective implementation of the Commission’s mission, and the avoidance of public harm.” The OMB has 120 days to process the order under Paperwork Reduction Act “information collective review” procedures. The order requires broadcasters to file detailed quarterly reports at the FCC starting April 10 on their compliance with the new rules on public service announcements. March 27 OMB approval will ensure that the first reports due are “effective and available for filing” no later than April 10, it said. The order gives cable and satellite providers 30 days to begin mailing bill “stuffers” warning customers of the DTV shift. CEA, the CE Retailers Coalition, Panasonic, Pioneer and Sony have asked the FCC to give CE makers the same 30-day grace period and narrow what they call the order’s “overly broad scope.” Current language would have printed advisories ship with new DTV sets and any equipment that hooks up to them. Meanwhile, Rural Cellular Corp. asked the FCC to expedite its petition for reconsideration, or a waiver, of the rule’s mandate to mail Lifeline and LinkUp customers notices about the DTV transition in their monthly bills. “RCC would prefer to mail monthly postcards to its Lifeline and Link-Up customers,” the company said in its filing.

NTIA hasn’t yet sought Office of Management and Budget approval of an order that would let assisted-living residents and consumers getting mail at post-office boxes obtain DTV converter box coupons (CED March 20 p1) OR (CD March 20 p4), an agency spokesman told us Thursday. When NTIA will file with the OMB “still is to be determined,” and so is whether the agency will seek fast-track emergency approval, said the spokesman. Normal OMB handling would mean five months or more to clear and enact an order. In its coupon-program rules, NTIA said ir decided to offer coupons only to “individual U.S. households,” and not “businesses, schools or other entities,” including assisted-living facilities. “There is nothing in the legislative history or the [rulemaking] comments that suggests that Congress intended to extend eligibility beyond households,” NTIA said. NTIA first proposed disqualifying anyone who getting mail at a post office box from getting a coupon. But “given the sensitivity of commenters to the prevalence of post office boxes in rural America, NTIA will make allowances for households on Indian reservations, Alaskan native villages and other rural areas where post office boxes are the only means of mail delivery,” the rules said.

Consumers ordered more than 581,000 DTV converter box coupons the week ended Friday, raising the total coupons requested since Jan. 1 to 7.7 million, NTIA said Monday. That’s just over a third of the 22.25 million in the program’s “base” phase, when any household can seek coupons. If needed, a “contingency” phase would offer 11.25 million additional coupons, but only to households certifying that they rely on over-the-air TV alone. Of 7.7 million coupons ordered through Friday, 1.8 million have been mailed, an NTIA spokesman said.

Rules in the FCC DTV consumer education order requiring CE makers to pack consumer advisories on the transition with a broad range of CE gear they import or ship interstate caught CEA off guard, a spokesman said Thursday. CEA expected every industry to come under some requirements, but wasn’t ready for the advisories order, he said. “We expected the FCC to merely supplement our extensive education efforts,” he said. “We also expected the requirements to be within the scope of the FCC’s jurisdiction. Our simple request to the Commission is to clarify what it meant in the order, which we believe they can easily do on their own motion.” He didn’t address our query on whether CEA regrets not having more aggressively lobbied the agency before its Feb. 19 adoption of the order, released March 3.

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.

Consumers ordered more than 493,000 DTV converter box coupons in the week ended Friday, raising coupons requested since Jan. 1 to 7.12 million, NTIA reported Monday. That’s just under a third of the 22.25 million paid for under the “base” phase of the program, when all households can request coupons. If needed, a “contingency” phase would offer an additional 11.25 million coupons, but only to households certifying that they rely on over-the-air TV alone. Residents of ZIP codes Caguas (00725, 6,730 coupons) and Mayaguez (00680, 5,996 coupons), Puerto Rico, ordered more coupons those of any other ZIP. Chicagoans also flocked to get coupons, NTIA data show.

CEA wishes the long-awaited FCC DTV consumer education order gave CE makers more time to comply, a spokesman told our affiliate Consumer Electronics Daily Tuesday. The rules were released late Monday. Immediately, companies that make, import or ship through interstate commerce TVs and devices designed to work with them must “include information with those devices explaining to consumers what effect, if any, the full-power DTV transition will have on their use,” the FCC said. The requirement’s immediate application bothers CEA, a spokesman said. CEA thinks “a more reasonable timeframe for implementation is necessary for CE manufacturers in recognition of the practical limitations of manufacturing cycles,” he said. CE makers have defined the cycles as 18 months in other FCC proceedings.

In the NTIA DTV coupon program contract IBM landed last August, the vendor proposed designing a coupon mailer “such that it stands out among the onslaught of mail any consumer might receive.” IBM’s “solution envisions multi-color highlights and call-to-action statements on the exterior envelope,” its contract proposal said. Instead, IBM is mailing the coupons in a white envelope with the program’s “TV Converter Box” logo in black and white in the return address.