Paul Gluckman

CEA reacted Wed. with predictable anger to NCTA’s bid (CD Aug 17 p9) to add 2-plus years -- to Dec. 31, 2009 -- to the CableCARD deadline for deploying cable’s downloadable conditional access system (DCAS). CE makers, though “not surprised” by NCTA’s waiver request, “are still deeply troubled” by it, CEA said.

The FCC Thurs. rejected a petition by a supplier of video systems for hospitals, dialysis centers and nursing homes to exempt its products from the March 2007 DTV tuner mandate on sets 13” and smaller (CD Jan 31 p4). But the Commission gave the company an extra year to comply. PDI Communications Systems of Springboro, O., doesn’t make or sell TVs for “general” consumer use, but is “in the niche industry” of supplying video entertainment systems for health facilities “that require specialized systems meeting demanding safety requirements,” it told the FCC in its petition. Requiring PDI to include DTV tuners in its systems “would not advance the policy goals that the Commission set forth” in its DTV tuner order, PDI said. PDI monitors aren’t consumer products and thus can’t spur consumer demand, it said. The FCC found no “merit” in that argument. Yes, PDI viewing units differ from most TV receivers with screens smaller than 13” “in that they are designed to receive service from a separate antenna connected through a cable rather than an attached antenna,” the FCC said. But that doesn’t “alter the fact that the PDI units would not be able to receive off-the-air TV signals when analog TV service ends unless they include a DTV tuner,” the FCC said: “If the PDI viewing units are not able to receive digital TV service after the transition ends, those patients who view off-the- air TV signals on them, as well as the health care providers who own and operate the systems, will lose the benefits of that service. In this regard, we recognize that when analog TV service ends those PDI systems that are configured with analog only viewing units will not be able to offer off-the- air TV service. Applying the DTV tuner requirement to new viewing units will include the PDI systems in the transition process and minimize the number of viewing units that will need to be replaced when analog service ends.” LG, which has supplied video monitors to PDI, opposed the petition and was alone in filing comments for or against.

NTIA hired an Alexandria, Va. project management company -- FunctionalIT -- as a “support contractor” to begin the first phases of its $1.5 billion coupon program on DTV converter box subsidies (CD July 25 p3). FunctionalIT’s job: Helping NTIA identify contractors most qualified to design the coupons, certify which retailers will take part and build in safeguards against waste, fraud and abuse.

NCTA’s 46-page rebuttal last month at the FCC blaming CableCARD snafus squarely on CE makers for CableCARD-ready DTVs that hadn’t been sufficiently tested was based on “a number of premises that are factually or conceptually incorrect,” CEA told the Commission in a 15-page rejoinder filed Mon. CEA again urged the FCC to enforce its July 2007 integration ban deadline, arguing that “common reliance” was the “most effective way” to promote problem-free CablecCARD deployment.

As long as CEA stays dead-set against audio flag talks that address the “cherry-picking” or “disaggregation” of digital HD Radio content, RIAA won’t take part in Copyright Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG) meetings, RIAA Chmn. Mitch Bainwol told Rep. Boucher (D-Va.). Bainwol was replying to Boucher’s July 27 letter scoring RIAA for its absence from last week’s CPTWG meeting.

Denying Comcast’s CableCARD waiver request on low-cost, limited-capability set-tops (CD May 2 p4) would mean $216- $324 million more yearly in social costs without “significant offsetting benefits,” a prominent economist said in a Comcast-commissioned study.

There’s “no history” at the FCC of recalls such as NAB is urging for XM and Sirius plug & play radios that exceed power emission limits (CD Aug1 p1), Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin told analysts Tues. in a Q2 earnings call. Sirius also believes such a recall “would not be in the public interest at all,” Karmazin said.

Reps. Blunt (R-Va.) and Cantor (R-Mo.) wrote CEA, NAB and RIAA Fri. urging they “renew” negotiations on audio flag content protection for digital radio. Though NAB and RIAA are believed to have talked, CEA hasn’t taken part. Instead, CEA has suggested RIAA participate in Copy Protection Technical Working Group discussions. Blunt and Cantor take heart from the groups’ dialog and hope to see talks “move forward in a way that involves all other affected stakeholders,” they said. They hope consensus can be found and “a resolution ultimately found through private negotiation,” they said. Private talks have stalled as the Senate Commerce Committee weighed telecom reform legislation that includes an audio flag component. “It is not our intention to take a position” on audio flag, Blunt and Cantor said: “These policy considerations have serious implications. With that in mind, we encourage you to return to the table and continue to negotiate with all interested parties in an attempt to work out this issue through industry discussion.”

It’s not enough that Sirius and XM have stopped shipping plug & play radios with wireless FM modulators found to exceed FCC power emission limits, NAB Pres. David Rehr told Chmn. Martin in a letter late Fri. Halting the shipments does “nothing to address non-compliant products already in consumers’ hands or those already shipped to distributors and retailers,” Rehr said.

Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) wrote RIAA Chmn. Mitch Bainwol Thurs. demanding to know why RIAA didn’t attend a Wed. Copy Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG) meeting in L.A. Boucher was pleased to hear Bainwol tell a House Commerce Subcommittee oversight hearing RIAA was willing to take part in CPTWG talks to seek a technical proposal on audio flag for digital radio, he said. But he was “extremely disappointed to learn” RIAA didn’t appear at the meeting “to make a technical proposal or to make any suggestions about how its policy concerns might be addressed through an appropriate mechanism” such as the CPTWG, he told Bainwol. “I would like to know why, in light of your testimony at our hearing, the RIAA declined to participate in the meeting,” Boucher told Bainwol. CPTWG provided a forum for talks on the video broadcast flag in which the movie, CE and IT industries reached consensus on a technical proposal they brought the FCC for implementation, Boucher said: “No similar discussions have occurred to date in connection with the recording industry’s audio flag proposal, perhaps in large measure because it has been many years since the RIAA has attended one of the CPTWG meetings.” He asked Bainwol to “work in good faith” with other industry stakeholders via the CPTWG “to develop a technical standard for an audio flag. It’s “premature” for members of Congress, “who lack industry’s technical expertise, to impose a technology mandate,” Boucher said. He said he hopes RIAA will attend the next CPTWG meeting, set for Oct. 4. RIAA said Bainwol stands by his testimony that his group is “fully willing to participate in discussions at CPTWG if CEA is willing to embrace the goal of content protection. Unfortunately, CEA just responded in a letter to Rep. Ferguson (R-N.J.) that they are not.” The reference was to a July 25 letter sent to Ferguson that RIAA provided to us in which CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro restates CEA’s position on the audio flag. The letter didn’t say CEA was opposed to content protection and appeared to restate CEA’s stance that recording devices are protected by the Audio Home Recording Act. In the letter, Shapiro said: “We encourage all stakeholders to take part in an open industry forum with a track record of success,” specifically CPTWG.