Paul Gluckman

NTIA didn’t release a request for proposals (RFP) Fri. for a DTV coupon vendor as it said in a Jan. 5 “presolicitation notice” it might (CD Jan 9 p11). Jan. 26 was only “an approximate date,” a spokesman said. The RFP and final coupon program rules are due very soon, he said. He wouldn’t comment on talk that they will appear around the same time.

A bill by House Republicans that would educate the public about the DTV transition (CD Jan 23 p11) seems designed to retain the new minority’s influence over the issue. Commerce Committee Ranking Member Barton (R-Tex.), Rep. Upton (R-Mich.) and former Speaker Hastert (R-Ill.), who Tues. announced he has joined Mitt Romney’s exploratory presidential committee, are sponsoring the bill, which would boost consumer outreach through the FCC, broadcasters, cable, satellite and CE retailers about the Feb. 2009 analog cutoff.

RIAA hailed Fri.’s ruling by U.S. Dist. Judge Deborah Batts, Manhattan, denying XM’s bid to dismiss a record industry lawsuit alleging that devices such as Pioneer’s Inno violate Sec. 114 of the Copyright Act with their recording functions. XM called the rejection only the first step in the case and said the company still believes the suit lacks merit. With the rejection of XM’s motion to dismiss, CEA said it “would be premature for Congress to act on this issue while the judicial process moves forward. Music lovers across the country are adopting innovative digital technologies to enjoy their lawfully acquired content where and when they want. We urge that they won’t be disenfranchised and business models will adapt to better serve today’s digital customers.” RIAA is pleased that the court rejected XM’s attempt to “misuse” the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) “as a legal loophole for distributing sound recordings to its subscribers,” said Gen. Counsel Steven Marks. “The AHRA was never intended to allow a service offering distributions of music to duck paying creators what they are due.” By declaring XM both broadcaster and distributor, the court is saying XM “directly competes with other distribution services like Rhapsody, Napster and iTunes,” Marks said: “It only follows that they should to obtain distribution licenses just as those services have. Parity among digital music services is a key issue in today’s marketplace… We hope this decision paves the way for resolving this case in the marketplace.” XM is confident the record labels’ suit is “without merit and that we will prevail,” a spokesman said: “At this stage of the proceeding, the court’s ruling is required to be based on the false characterizations set forth in the plaintiff’s complaint. The real facts strongly support our view that the lawsuit is barred by the Audio Home Recording Act. We look forward to making our case in court.”

In 2006 CE products used about 11% of U.S. residential electricity, accounting for about 4% of total consumption, said a report commissioned by CEA for release Wed. at CES. CEA has said it financed the study to amass “high-quality research” for honing policies on CE energy consumption, after seeing too much energy policymaking based on faulty data. The report’s biggest caveat: It doesn’t include data on DTV power use. The report will be updated in spring to include those data, said author Tiax LLC, a consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass. DTV test procedures are being developed and the scant DTV data available are on sets sold in 2004, Tiax has said. A holdup: The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is writing standardized methods for measuring DTV energy consumption, but there has been “much disagreement” in that body due to geographic variations in TV set use, CEA has said. Average annual unit energy consumption (UEC) varied widely by device, the study found. Products with the highest UEC -- desktop PCs, stand-alone PVRs, analog TV sets -- used an order of magnitude more electricity per product than those with the lowest UEC -- cordless phones -- the study said. In 2006 analog TVs accounted for 36% of total CE energy use, the report said. In active mode, analog TV power draw has grown with screen size, the report said. Desktop and notebook PC power draw also has grown, it said. But the UEC of all PC and monitors has fallen over time because notebook PCs and LCD monitors make up more of the mix, the report said.

It’s unclear when NTIA will release final rules on the DTV converter box coupon program, but a request for proposals (RFP) seeking a vendor for the program is due Jan. 26. Final rules are subject to OMB review that can take 45 days, an NTIA spokesman told us, adding that the rules haven’t been sent to OMB. NTIA said the RFP will require services in “broad functional areas": consumer education and communications, systems processing and financial processing. NTIA plans to award a contract for an “end-to-end” approach, it said. The contract is expected to last 27 months, NTIA said. It said it expects to hold a “bidder’s conference” once the RFP is out.

Over 191,000 CableCARDs have been deployed by the 5 largest cable companies, NCTA said Fri. in its latest update to the FCC. Including the next 5 largest cable companies, the total exceeds 216,000 deployed by operators whose service areas include about 90% of U.S. subscribers, NCTA said. By Nov. 10, 29 CE companies had 541 models of CableCARD-ready product verified, it said. CableLabs in Jan. will begin offering compatibility tests of one-way digital cable products and their multistream CableCARD interface, as it tests “conformance” to the single-stream CableCARD interface, NCTA said. Comcast had the largest number of CableCARD subscribers by far, 102,168 in Nov., but charges no monthly leasing fee, the report said. Time Warner Cable (TWC), which had 41,461 CableCARD subscribers, charged $2.05 on average -- the most among large MSOs. But most of its divisions are at $1.75, it said. TWC still is working on standard CableCARD lease rates across its divisions, it said. Pricing differs within the cable systems formerly owned by Adelphia and related systems that were swapped with Comcast, TWC said. TWC was virtually alone among major MSOs in offering to let subscribers self-install CableCARDs. Self-installs accounted for only 4% of TWC CableCARDs deployed, the report said. TWC also had the highest average number of truck rolls required to install a CableCARD -- 1.73.

San Bruno Cable will put 2 Motorola DCT-700 digital cable set-tops in each subscriber’s home at no extra charge if it can keep buying those boxes after the July 1 CableCARD deadline, the municipal cable operator told the FCC. San Bruno wants a 2-year “expedited” CableCARD waiver on the DCT- 700 so it can convert customers to an all-digital network within 3 years, it said. “Our transition to an all-digital network will free up bandwidth for additional services, including more high definition channels, more specialty channels, higher internet bandwidth and more,” San Bruno said. Without a waiver, “we will have no choice but to purchase and deploy digital set-tops that cost significantly more with no discernible benefit to our customers,” it said: “This will derail our digital simulcast plans and push our transition date back several years at least.” CEA will oppose San Bruno’s waiver request and “will have more to say” about it “when we file our response,” a spokesman told us. The DTV transition “is vitally important to all American consumers, and the cable monopolies should not try to hold that transition hostage to their self-interested push to maintain an equipment monopoly,” he said.

“Participation in CEA standards activities is open to all interested parties,” CEA said, responding to an ex parte filed at the FCC by the Coalition for Independent Ratings Services. Coalition members, including Media Data Corp., had alleged they were shut out of the process to revise the CEA- 766-A specification, which enables DTV sets to read U.S. and Canadian “region rating tables” (RRTs) using “program and system information protocol” (PSIP) in the ATSC standard. CEA has “already communicated to Media Data that we welcome their participation and look forward to receiving their input,” CEA said. As for Coalition allegations that CEA had reserved “RRT 0X05” for itself for future use, CEA said ATSC is “the librarian” for RRTs, and “we reserved the placeholder for future downloadable rating systems.”

NCTA’s “objections” in its ex parte rebuttal to CEA’s Nov. 7 proposal at the FCC on 2-way plug & play (CD Dec 7 p8) “reveal a variety of misconceptions about what the proposal would and would not require,” CEA said in a reply filed Fri. at the Commission. “Most, if not all,” of NCTA misunderstandings “are capable of being resolved in a face- to-face meeting between the 2 sides,” CEA said. “The CE industry remains ready to engage in such discussions at any mutually convenient time and place. The status quo simply will not lead to the consumer choice envisioned by Section 629” of the Communications Act, CEA said: “This process must move forward.” CEA and NCTA told the FCC in their most recent regularly scheduled progress report Nov. 29 on the 2- way plug & play talks that the sides hadn’t met in over 2 months. Cable “of course” is ready “to engage in further discussions” with CE, “and to the extent any ‘misunderstandings’ can be resolved in such face-to-face meetings, the sooner they can be had the better,” an NCTA spokesman said. Even without meetings between the cable and CE business teams, their “tech teams” made “significant progress” in narrowing the differences between the sides, such as on resource-sharing in OCAP devices, the spokesman said: “But let there be no misunderstanding about why there have been no major meetings on 2-way issues in the recent past.” Cable had set an Aug. meeting date with CE, but was told “the CE side did not want to have a joint meeting and we should wait to hear from them about another meeting,” the spokesman said. “Apparently some CE companies were taken aback” by NCTA’s CableCARD waiver request at the Commission in Aug., the spokesman said. CE makers responded by walking away from the table, telling NCTA they're not sure there’s much that can be discussed rationally, he said: “Until that exchange, the 2 sides had tried to keep integration ban issues and 2-way issues separate. But CE’s thinking apparently was that if a waiver of the CableCARD requirement was granted, cable wouldn’t support 2-way CableCARD-enabled products.” He cited CE industry e-mails in which NCTA was told further talks would be pointless. Still, “we are ready to have discussions as we were then,” the spokesman said. CEA answered NCTA’s rebuttal in a 9-page, point-by-point rejoinder. For example, to NCTA’s argument that over a dozen CE makers, including LG, Panasonic and Samsung, have signed OCAP and CHILA licenses with CableLabs, CEA said: “Signing the only available license agreement should not be interpreted as tantamount to a policy position, or as exclusive of or inconsistent with improvements or other options.” Without mentioning them by name, CEA said Sony, Microsoft and Intel were among the 12 CE and IT companies signing on to its Nov. 7 proposal. “CEA believes that consumers are best served by variety and choice,” which its Nov. 7 proposal “aims to provide,” it said.

CEA and allied CE and IT companies may claim a plan they back would speed retail sale of 2-way plug & play devices, but it really would mean an innovation-chilling govt. “quagmire,” violating Sec. 629 of the Communications Act, NCTA said in an ex parte filed at the agency. The proposal by CEA and the 12 companies reached the FCC Nov. 7 (CD Nov 9 p12).