Rapid FCC adoption of a cable-CE plug-and-play interoperability agreement is necessary to “enable manufacturers to realize efficiencies deriving from commonalities between designing and producing cable-ready DTV receivers” and meeting the Commission’s July 1, 2004, deadline for incorporating ATSC tuners in half of all larger- screen TVs, Thomson said in an ex parte filing at the FCC. Thomson representatives, meeting May 19 with the staff of the FCC’s Media Bureau, emphasized the importance of “avoiding the unfortunate consequence of the Commission’s missing an 18-month product cycle” while consideration of plug-and-play agreement is still pending, the filing said. Ensuring the ability of consumers to walk into a retail outlet and be assured that the DTV set they want to buy is truly “cable- ready” is “perhaps the single most important near-term achievement the Commission could accomplish to accelerate the DTV transition,” Thomson said.
The FCC’s Media Bureau sent a flurry of letters to all of the industry players involved in the digital TV transition seeking more specific details on their efforts to move the transition forward. Bureau Chief Kenneth Ferree asked the major TV networks -- ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PAX, PBS, UPN and WB -- to describe in detail their digital programming being fed to affiliates, including the time period of the programming, the source of the material and the format in which it was transmitted.
The FCC should move quickly to adopt the industry agreement on cable compatibility, the NCTA said in the latest round of comments to the Commission, and objections by the MPAA and others should be dismissed because the proposed rules were modeled on those already developed for secure digital connectors and agreed to by MPAA studios and others. The CEA and the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition agreed, but MPAA and others said hasty Commission action would be harmful and unnecessary.
Finger pointing over the slowed DTV transition continued in comments filed Mon. with the FCC on 2 DTV proceedings (CD April 22 p3): the biennial review and on whether to impose public interest obligations. Most of the comments were repeats: Cable representatives said more consumer devices were needed, the consumer electronics industry said there wasn’t enough content and promotion and broadcasters said there must be cable must-carry for DTV.
With barely 3 weeks left to comply with a federal mandate to convert to digital, more than 120 of the 357 public TV stations have reported compliance, the Assn. of Public TV Stations (APTS said. “It looks like two-thirds or more will make the [May 1] deadline,” APTS Pres. John Lawson said in an interview. Faced with an estimated conversion cost of $1.7 billion, public broadcasters had raised $771 million from state, local and private sources, with only $221 million coming from the federal govt through FY 2003. However, federal money released this year made a big difference to many stations’ digital transition, Lawson said: “I think that is going to be the primary reason that a lot of stations get over the finish line.”
Full and “expeditious” approval of the FCC rulemaking encompassing the “plug-and-play” agreement on cable-CE interoperability (CD Dec 20 p1) was urged in joint comments filed at the Commission by the CEA and Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition (CERC). Others, including broadcasters and the MPAA, disagreed.
Cable TV systems should be permitted to charge DTV subscribers an extra $10 per month for digital programming -- with half of that paid by systems to local TV stations -- Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research said last week. Speaking at the NAB Futures Summit in Monterey, Cal., he said a survey of digital set owners showed that 75% would be willing to pay an average of $110.20 per month for high-definition programming and that cable systems should “break precedent” and pay TV stations for digital content: “Why? Because the digital transition is profitless for the entire TV value chain.” He said networks now aired some HDTV programming “to make a positive impression on the FCC regulators… One TV executive told us confidentially that his network produces HDTV just to please the FCC.” If systems are allowed to charge for DTV, they should be required by the FCC to carry both analog and digital signals of local stations, Bernoff said. And, he said, cable payments to broadcasters would encourage the production of more high-definition programming and speed the overall transition to digital. Another benefit of charging subscribers for HDTV, Bernoff said: “Operators can slow or stop their basic cable rate increases, bringing down congressional and consumer blood pressure.” Mark Richer, pres. of the Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC), detailed to the Summit attendees efforts being made to develop new broadcast standards and the increased flexibility they would provide for broadcasters and set manufacturers. He said progress was being made with CableLabs to “harmonize” specifications for interactive TV.
The Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) is expected to vote this spring on an enhanced VSB (E-VSB) modulation standard for DTV, nearly a year later than originally planned, Nat Ostroff, Sinclair Bcst. Group vp-new technology told our affiliate Consumer Electronics Daily at a Kagan seminar in N.Y.C., but key ATSC official said polling of full committee was unlikely before midsummer, at earliest. The committee vote would cap a 2-year process in which the field of 8 proposals for E-VSB was winnowed to 3 and ultimately one -- the version developed jointly by Zenith and NxtWave Communications, he said.
Industry negotiations on cable carriage of broadcast DTV programming have seen “only minimal progress” and cable carriage is vital for the DTV transition if most consumers continue to get their broadcast channels through cable, NAB Pres. Edward Fritts told the annual meeting of the Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) Tues. NCTA Pres. Robert Sachs later said broadcast signals were an important part of “cable’s mix” of services, but he challenged broadcasters’ contentions that cable systems were “blocking access” to high-definition (HD) broadcast programming. It was Round 2 in the continuing rhetorical battle between Fritts and Sachs, one day after similar arguments at the Consumer Electronics Assn.’s HDTV Summit (CD March 11 p4).
FCC should encourage inclusion of broadcast flag in digital broadcast equipment but without imposing regulation, said DirecTV Fri. “The Commission should mandate support of the ATSC flag… only if market forces alone fail to produce the desirable result,” it said. Company also addressed concerns that broadcast flag could be hackable, saying future protection technologies can be layered with flag for increased protection. Reply comments concerning proposed rulemaking on digital broadcast copy protection are due Fri.