Sony isn’t barrier to DTV transition but believes it has been among its “stronger proponents and advocates,” said Sony spokesman responding to allegations by John Lawson, pres. of Assn. of Public TV Stations, that Sony was potential “barrier” to delivery of over-air DTV reception to consumers if it didn’t drop opposition to FCC’s DTV tuner mandate (CD Aug 21 p4). Without DTV content and distribution through cable and satellite compatibility, Sony spokesman said, “the majority of consumers would not be able to receive HDTV service or get the benefit of their ATSC television.” Like FCC, Sony is committed to “the quick acceptance and usage of high-definition DTV” by consumers. But he said company believes “the only true measure of success” in DTV transition is achieving cable and satellite compatibility, without which risks development of “an over-the-air market segmentation situation” that would benefit neither broadcasters nor consumers. Spokesman said Sony looks forward “to the FCC addressing -- as it said it would -- the key issues of cable compatibility and must-carry, which we think are very, very important.”
Dearth of extenuating circumstances makes it unlikely CEA will petition FCC for reconsideration of Aug. 8 order mandating DTV tuners in TVs (CD Aug 9 p1) and other NTSC receiving devices by 2007, CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro told us Mon. He said lack of new evidence on DTV tuner mandate would make reconsideration petition virtually “fruitless.”
In one of most significant steps FCC has taken to transition to DTV, commissioners voted 3-1 Thurs. to force CE manufacturers to include over-the-air DTV tuners in virtually all TV sets by 2007. Move had been expected (CD Aug 8 p3). Broadcasters applauded decision, with NAB Pres. Edward Fritts calling it “an important first step” in ensuring all Americans would have access to over-the-air broadcast DTV after they returned highly valuable spectrum to govt. CEA vowed challenge either by seeking reconsideration or by filing lawsuit in federal court on behalf of CE manufacturers who must comply with Commission’s order.
CEA has vowed to use all legal means possible, including seeking injunction in U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to challenge FCC’s authority to mandate that DTV tuners be installed in all TVs if Commission so acts at agenda meeting today (Aug. 8) in Washington. Core of any CEA court argument will be that FCC “lacks statutory authority” to set tuner mandates under 40-year-old All-Channel Receiver Act (ACRA), CEA said in White Paper distributed to members July 23.
Thomson and Mitsubishi are squaring off in DTV debate, with former backing proposed FCC mandate requiring tuners gradually be included in analog sets, while latter opposes requirement. In separate ex parte filings with FCC, Thomson proposed extending deadline for fully integrating DTV tuners in sub-35” TVs 1-2 years to 2007-2008, while Mitsubishi Mktg. Vp Robert Perry said proposed mandate “should not be the next step in DTV transition” since it would result in “fundamental resource misallocation.” Earlier in week, Zenith weighed in, arguing that phased integration of tuners would be best means for providing “consumers with cost-effective products while achieving the national policy objectives” (CD July 31 p9).
Zenith supports FCC mandate that DTV tuners be included in analog sets, beginning with largest sets and working down, it said in ex parte filing at Commission. “Phasing in integrated ATSC reception over time… will provide the best way to provide consumers with cost-effective products while achieving the national policy objectives,” Zenith Senior Vp Richard Lewis said: “But we cannot act unilaterally.” Company said cost of adding DTV tuners was “less than $200 and falling,” and fall was faster than decline in overall price of DTV sets. “By the time ATSC reception gravitates to small-screen TVS,” it said, “the cost of producing a digital receiver can be about the same as an analog tuner.” Zenith said mandate was necessary to allow sets that included DTV tuners to compete with low-cost set manufacturers: “The extremely price-competitive consumer electronics market demands a level playing field.”
House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) told more than 20 members of broadcast, cable, satellite, motion picture and CE industries Mon. that he planned to introduce bipartisan, omnibus digital TV bill in fall addressing most all outstanding issues involving transition to digital TV. Although he encouraged industries to try to resolve issues among themselves, he said he no longer would stand by and wait for them. Speaking at private DTV roundtable, Tauzin said he was directing his staff to draft bill to resolve conflicts among various industries over DTV cable carriage requirements, equipment functionality and interoperability, particularly cable systems, over-air DTV tuners, ability of affiliates to broadcast network-generated high-definition programming, content protection. Tauzin spokesman Ken Johnson said, “We've made a lot of progress in a lot of areas, but it’s clear to us now that legislation will be necessary in order to complete the transition to digital.” He didn’t indicate how those issues would be resolved and which industries might fare better than others. FCC Chmn. Powell attended Tauzin’s 6th DTV roundtable but also met earlier with Tauzin for about hour, Johnson said: “They agreed that an aggressive approach is now necessary.”
FCC Chmn. Powell took second swipe at CE industry in as many days Fri., saying that its latest response on digital TV tuners “is so limited, and loaded down with so many conditions, that I believe it amounts to no commitment at all.” On Thurs., Powell had commended broadcasters, cable, satellite and others -- all except CE industry -- for moving forward with plans to comply with his voluntary plan to jump- start national DTV transition. Just hours before Powell made his latest comments, CE industry announced it was asking each of its members who sell digital TV products to include over- air DTV tuner in all digital cable-compatible TVs within 18 months. But catch was that commitment would have to follow implementation of “open, national and fully featured ‘plug- and-play’ cable standard,” which currently doesn’t exist. CE industry said most manufacturers voluntarily planned to market and promote at least one set-top box that could receive and decode digital TV signals by Dec. 31, 2003. CEA said some manufacturers were “moving aggressively” to integrate digital tuners in their TV lines -- digital, analog and/or both -- within next 2 to 3 years.
FCC should begin setting rules for single frequency networks, or Distributed Transmission (DT), NAB, MSTV, APTS and 14 other broadcasters and equipment makers said in ex parte filing. In Distributed Transmission, broadcasters use multiple lower power transmitters operating on same channel as primary transmitter, rather than trying to cover entire area with one high-power signal. Cell-like transmitter network can be used to replace some translators and satellites and to provide more uniform coverage of reception area at lower overall power. DT takes advantage of adaptive equalizers built into DTV tuners to avoid problems caused by signals from multiple transmitters arriving on single channel. Equalizer chooses best signal and simply blocks out others, negating impact of interference. Advanced TV Technology Center has been working on DT for years. First multiple transmitter system is under construction in State College, Pa., area under FCC experimental license. Ex parte filing said DT could: (1) Provide more uniform and higher power signals over wider area while causing less interference outside reception area. (2) Fill in signal gaps. (3) Solve other interference problems. (4) Enable more set-top antennas to receive DTV. (5) Potentially allow pedestrian and mobile reception of DTV. Group said it understood FCC was about to open rulemaking on digital operation of LPTV and translators and said DT should be considered as part of rulemaking. It said ATSC already was developing technical standards for DT. Key issues to be resolved in rulemaking, it said, are granting primary status for DT transmitters (rather than secondary status for LPTV, translators and boosters), setting interference rules, handling other technical issues. Groups signing ex parte filing said that, while they supported general concept of DT, “they may differ on the specifics of how it may be implemented.”
Cross-section of industry executives said they had reached consensus on how to protect digital broadcast content from unauthorized retransmission over Internet. But it was apparent from report they released Tues. that consensus was far from unanimous on subject. Many companies and groups that were part of negotiating process objected to final agreement, citing problems with almost every aspect. Report by Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG) -- composed of movie, TV, consumer electronics and other executives -- said there was “substantial agreement” on use of redistribution control descriptor established earlier by Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) for signal protection for digital TV (DTV) content. Report was sent to Copy Protection Technical Working Group, which is expected to submit it to Congress for possible legislation. BPDG said it didn’t think it was appropriate venue to address enforcement issues, so it recommended establishing parallel group to work on those questions.