FCC Orders Switch to Digital TV

Reuters ^ | 08/08/2002 | CONNIE CASS

[StockAyatollah]

Aimed at jump-starting the slow transition to digital television, the order requires digital tuners to start appearing in televisions with 35-inch screens or larger in 2004 and in all sets with screens larger than 13 inches by mid-2007.

Many manufacturers had lobbied against the move, citing the high cost and arguing that most consumers don't need the over-the-air capability because they hook their televisions up to cable or satellite services.

"We have to get the digital television transition back on track. This order we adopt today is a step in the right direction," said FCC ( news - web sites) Commissioner Michael Copps ahead of the 3-1 vote at the agency's monthly open meeting.

The digital transition, which was designed to be mostly completed by 2007, has been slowed in part by limited digital programming, potential piracy of programs and high-priced equipment needed to receive the higher quality signals.

Congress and the FCC have been ratcheting up the pressure to accelerate the transition to digital so consumers can enjoy the better pictures and the government can reclaim and auction some of the airwaves being used for traditional analog broadcasts.

TRADE GROUP'S OBJECTIONS

The Consumer Electronics Association, the trade group for television manufacturers, has said that including the tuners would cost $250 a set and that only 13 percent of consumers use a traditional antenna to receive their primary TV signal.

The FCC should focus on adopting a standard on connecting the television to the cable system, the group has said.

Television broadcasters argue the cost is much less, as low as $15 per set, and that there are 80 million television sets in use across the United States that rely on over-the-air signals.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell in April outlined an extensive plan for moving the conversion ahead, pushing the squabbling broadcasters, cable providers, programmers and electronics manufacturers to quit their bickering over who should take the first step.

At Powell's prompting, broadcasters have agreed to air some of their prime-time programming in high-definition digital starting this fall and pass it through in the top 100 markets.

Additionally, the top cable operators have agreed to carry some high definition digital channels by 2003 as well as begin deploying integrated set-top boxes that display high-definition programming.

The missing link was consumer electronics manufacturers. CEA said its members would only include digital tuners in new sets 18 months after a standard was established for the equipment to connect digital television sets to cable systems.

There was some disagreement among television makers. LG Electronics' Zenith and Thomson Multimedia Inc.'s RCA have said they would begin adding the tuners to new sets soon though Thomson wanted until as late as 2008 for sets with screens smaller than 35 inches.

[StockAyatollah]

Two questions:

1. Will this make existing HDTV sets and converters obsolete?

2. What are Powell's qualifications for running the FCC?

[garyb]

Two questions:
1. Will this make existing HDTV sets and converters obsolete?

This change will not make existing sets obsolete. But Hollywood's insistance on copy protection probably will break the standard and obsolete existing receivers.

2. What are Powell's qualifications for running the FCC?

Uh, having the good fortune to pick an excellent daddy.

[11th Earl of Mar]

Get the governemnt out of our bedrooms... I mean, family rooms.

[Wyatt's Torch]

With all due respect, there are proper functions for govenment and this, regulating interstate commerce, is one. The equipment manufacturers are ticked because there is not enough HD content to sell enough sets to bring the cost down. The content providers are screaming theat they aren't going to make the content because there isn't enough demand as shown by set purchases. Being a home theater buff, I have held off purchasing an HDTV for over 2 years until the standards get settled. If allowed to continue, this will go on for years and they only losers will be the consumers. Someone needed to make a decision and force the two sides to move forward. It is still a long way from settled but at least it is moving forward. This will give high-end consumers what they want.

[kidd]

Making television sets digital is kind of like making the Sanitation department use Corvettes.

[isthisnickcool]

Powell's qualifications?

He was one of his daddy's swimmers (see above) that won the lottery.

[cynicom]

Get the government out of my bar.

[Dimensio]

Actually, the MPAA's insistence on copy protection might cause problems with existing sets, as they might mandate that "copy protected" signals only be allowed to be sent via analogue connectors at 480p (downconverting from 1080i or 720p). Of course, a simple hack in a converter box would likely fix that, but then you'd be violating the DMCA in your attempt to get your moneys worth from your digital signal and HDTV monitor.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Yep. DVI/HDCP has already been hacked. DVI/HDMI isn't far behind.

I gotta say, the Hollywood types sure will tick off the 3Million plus Analog HDTV owners if these type of copy protection solutions are put in place.

[coloradan]

This will give high-end consumers what they want.

I'm glad there's the government out there to protect the interests of high-end people. Now if only the government can settle the Mac-MS-Linux debate, by mandating that all computers manufactured after a certain date must have ____ installed. Properly regulating interstate commerce, and all that.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Sarcasm aside, you know computers are very different. There are single transmission specifications for all OTA broadcasts now. All TV's receive and decode them the same way. Your computer OS analogy isn't a very good one.

[Looking4Truth]

Making television sets digital is kind of like making the Sanitation department use Corvettes.

How true. I couldn't have said it better myself. I always tell people that televsion is 'mind pollution'.

I wonder if these new receivers are addressable. Getting out my big-brother-will-be-watching-tinfoil-hat.....

[steve-b]

Basically, Congress needs to grow a spine and tell Hollyweird that they're just going to have to rely on traditional prosecution of copyright violators, not some magic technological fix. Wrecking compatibility with the digital sets already on the market will piss off the early adopters whose word-of-mouth advertising will make or break adoption by the public generally (to say nothing of the fact that these people are, for obvious reasons, among the wealthier and more influential citizens generally).

I suppose the other alternative would be to put a special excise tax on movies sufficient to compensate the existing owners of digital sets and make up for the $12 billion loss from not being able to sell off the old analog TV spectrum on schedule....

[coloradan]

It might be that my OS analogy is poor. But by "giving high end customers what they want," the government is hardly staying with its constitutional boundaries.

Setting a broadcast standard, fine, but let the market decide if people want the new technology or not. If people want new TVs, the manufacturers will start making them even without threat of sanctions.

[Dog Gone]

It's about time that the FCC did something. We have the technology to have everything be a digital HDTV transmission, and the squabbling between the groups has gotten old.

Just do it.

[balrog666]

And how many people run their cable systems through a VCR or video splitter/enhancer? Is the FCC going to mandate digital-tuner VCR's and digital-to-digital cabling?

Additional (luddite) note: Who gives a sh!t about HDTV or digital TV anyway (other than the three people who may actually watch the crappy shows broadcast that way)? And who is going to convert all those old movies and TV shows from their original format? And how much is it going to cost us? And...

[HAL9000]

With all due respect, there are proper functions for govenment and this, regulating interstate commerce, is one.

Yes - but there is hardly any consumer demand for HDTV. Most people are satisfied with the current technical standards. But the government wants to reclaim the NTSC frequencies and auction them off, so the bureaucrats have a financial incentive to force this change.

Meanwhile, the FCC isn't doing a damn thing to advance the service there is a real demand for - affordable broadband access. It won't make any money for the federal government, it could weaken the Bell monopolies, and the feds currently can't expand Carnivore fast enough to monitor everyone if we're all using broadband connections. So we're stuck with the 100-year-old voice grade standard in most of the country.

[Dog Gone]

If people want new TVs, the manufacturers will start making them even without threat of sanctions.

The problem has been that the consumer doesn't want them if the broadcast signal isn't there to use the technology. I've been wanting an HDTV for the last four years, but with so little programming available for that technology, what's the point of buying one?

This move by the FCC doesn't solve that problem yet, but it's a start.

[Wyatt's Torch]

But by "giving high end customers what they want," the government is hardly staying with its constitutional boundaries.

This is not the reason why there is government oversight. The government is getting the current broadcast spectrum back and in order to do that they have to facilitate the transisition to the new digital spectrum.

Setting a broadcast standard, fine, but let the market decide if people want the new technology or not. If people want new TVs, the manufacturers will start making them even without threat of sanctions.

This has been occurring already. There have been 3+ million HDTV sets already sold. Problem is, the content providers are screaming about "copy protection" and have devised new standards that will make virtually every one of the sets sold to date obsolete (do a search on DVI/HDCP or DVI/HDMI). People like me, who would dearly love to but a new set, will not until they settle the standard war. I tell people who ask me for advice on Home Theater suff, that even if I had $1 Million, I would not buy an HDTV set until they settle the standard. Both sides have been dragging their feet on making a decision. This stuff has been going on for 4-5 years and needed to be settled.

FReegards