Paul Gluckman

Whether DVD players, VCRs and other “TV interface devices” are more prone than TV sets to interference from unlicensed devices operating on or adjacent to channels 2-4 is among many CE questions for which the FCC seeks answers on use of TV white spaces, according to the Commission order and further rulemaking released last week (CD Oct 19 p1).

CE makers “simply do not understand why an important group like yours would want to force consumers to rent boxes from monopoly cable companies,” CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro said Tues. in letters to 10 consumer groups, responding to their calls for the FCC to grant cable’s various CableCARD waiver requests. One such group, the Black Leadership Forum, wrote FCC Chmn. Martin Sept. 28 claiming cable companies would have to pass along $600 million in yearly added costs to besieged consumers if the Commission enforces a July 1, 2007, CableCARD deadline. “Particularly troubling is the unnecessary nature of what can be only described as a regressive ’tax’ on cable customers,” Forum Exec. Dir. Joe Leonard said: “With gas prices spiraling through the roof and wages stagnant, the federal government should be seeking ways to provide working Americans relief. Instead, the FCC appears poised to allow a regulation to go into effect which would saddle consumers with added costs and give them nothing tangible in return.” The Forum “would certainly support FCC rules designed to usher in new competitive technologies and equipment designed to help consumers navigate their incoming cable signals,” he said. For example, downloadable security will let next-generation DTVs “navigate cable signals without imposing unnecessary costs on consumers,” Leonard said. But a “backward-looking” CableCARD rule “will divert resources that could be better invested in these newer technologies,” he said. Dozens of letters in this vein were sent Martin in a campaign run by LMG, a Washington-based lobbying firm begun by Julian Epstein, former chief Democratic counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, now on NCTA’s retainer. In CEA’s replies to Leonard and 9 others -- copies also sent to Martin and filed in the Commission’s CableCARD docket (97-80) -- Shapiro said consumers “can and should have more choices, so we are puzzled that your organization is not supporting” a 1996 law enacted by Congress that mandates CableCARDs. The cable industry-designed CableCARD was the “key to ensuring that consumers could use devices of their choice to receive cable programming,” Shapiro said: “After numerous delays, including extensions granted by the FCC and 2 lost court cases, the cable companies are still chaining their customers to technology of the past and requiring them to pay higher fees for the privilege of using their pre-1996 first- generation technology, not to mention defying the will of Congress and the FCC.” If the Commission grants another waiver, cable companies “will continue to use their proprietary set-top boxes safely within their monopolies, while eschewing consumer choice, innovation and technological advancement,” Shapiro said: “Ultimately, consumers pay for these actions through high monthly costs and minimal choice.”

CE makers and broadcasters tore at each other’s throats during the DTV transition debate. So it was a big surprise last month when CEA, MSTV and NAB filed comments jointly in NTIA’s rulemaking on running the $1.5 billion DTV converter box coupon program (CD Sept 26 p3).

Nothing in the “plain language” of the DTV legislation or its history calls for excluding cable or satellite households from qualifying for a DTV converter box coupon, CEA, MSTV and NAB said Mon. in rare joint comments in NTIA’s rulemaking on how the $1.5 billion program should be run. “For the same reasons, consumer eligibility should not be delimited by a means test,” said the groups.

Under “normal commercial conditions,” a coupon program of the “size and scope” estimated for NTIA’s DTV converter box $40 voucher giveaway would take 18 months to prepare, a potential vendor said in Request for Information (RFI) filing at the agency Sept. 15. NTIA’s proposed schedule for awarding contracts June 2007 and begin issuing coupons Jan. 2008 is “feasible” but will require “solutions that can be implemented quickly,” said the vendor, Archway Mktg. Services, of Rogers, Minn.

NAB, frustrated that the FCC hasn’t acted on its July request to “seek recall” of noncompliant Sirius and XM receivers shipped to retail or sold through to consumers, asked Sirius and XM Thurs. to pull or suspend service to those radios voluntarily. Sirius and XM hadn’t responded by our deadline to our requests for comment. But both seemed certain to reject the call, as they opposed NAB’s request to the Commission for a recall last month.

TiVo opposes Verizon’s CableCARD waiver request because granting it “would amount to an indefinite exemption from the integration ban, rather than a limited waiver,” the company told the FCC in reply comments. TiVo also urged the Commission to reject a separate Charter waiver request because its reach would go “far beyond” low-end, limited- function set-tops and thus “critically weaken the goal of the integration ban.”

Wal-Mart expects to be “one of the top sellers” of DTV converter boxes for the 2009 analog cutoff, the retailing giant told NTIA. As an “advocate” for economically hard- pressed consumers who can least afford rising energy costs, Wal-Mart urged NTIA to require “auto-power-down” defaults and other power-limit features as conditions for making boxes eligible for the $40 coupon subsidies.

The FCC gave XM new approval for 3 plug & play receiver models after finding them compliant with Commission power- emission rules, XM said Fri. XM said it’s telling makers of the Audiovox Xpress, Delphi RoadyXT and XM Sportscaster to resume production. The 3, among XM’s “primary” receivers in the retail aftermarket, are expected to be available for the holiday selling season, XM said. Not mentioned by XM was the status of 5 other models under FCC probe -- the Delphi SKYFi2, MyFi, Airwave, Tao and Roady 2 (CD Aug 14 p11). XM “is in the process of determining which of those radios it will submit for FCC approval,” a spokesman told us. Suppliers may need weeks to get units through the supply chain, Bank of America research analyst Jonathan Jacoby said Fri. in a report. XM likely will need to air-freight stock to assure stores have holiday inventory, he said. So there’s a risk Q4 subscriber acquisition costs will exceed projections, Jacoby said. XM conceded in its last quarterly earnings call it would take “a bit over a month” to begin filling the pipeline with compliant product once an FCC probe ended (CD July 28 p6). They said expedited-shipping costs were a necessary burden in getting radios to stores. Jacoby speculated XM’s newly compliant radios -- which drop wireless FM transmitters in favor of a wired fix -- could prove less popular with consumers because they'll need costlier professional installation.

There was “nothing unreasonable” in the FCC’s March 2005 decision letting stand the integration ban on digital cable set-tops, the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., said Fri., denying a cable industry challenge. “In light of the evolving nature” of downloadable security technology as a successor to CableCARD, it also was “hardly unreasonable for the FCC to delay, but not to delete, the integration ban,” wrote Judge Merrick Garland. Also on the panel were Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg and Judge David Tatel.