[opendtv] News: Broadcasters Hit On DTV Transition
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 12:50:49 -0500
Broadcasters Hit On DTV Transition
March 23, 2005 12:00am
Source: Reed Business Information. All Rights Reserved.
TWICE:
WASHINGTON- Speakers at the Consumer Electronics Association's (CEA)
10th HDTV Summit, held here, took the broadcasting industry to task
for failing to join with other industries in seeking a hard cutoff
date for analog television broadcasting.
"The real issue is not the broadcast industry," said David Donovan,
MSTV's president. "The real issue is the consumer. When we started
this process back with the FCC, the goal was to ease the consumer in
the shift from analog to digital. Over the years things have shifted.
Now it appears the top priority is spectrum reclamation, which
understandably is an important goal. But if you are going to make
that a top priority what you are going to have to do is deal with the
consumer and make that transition easier."
Arguing on behalf of a hard cutoff date, Rhett Dawson, Information
Technology Council's president, said, "Nothing focuses the mind like
the hangman's noose or a date certain. If you give us a date certain,
I think things will become much more clear, and technology will be
able to have a slingshot effect into the new changing world."
House Committee on Energy and Commerce's chairman Rep. Joe Barton
(R-Texas) joined with Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the
Internet's chairman Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) in vowing to draft this
session legislation to impose a hard analog cutoff date.
Barton said many businesses from multiple industries, except the
broadcast industry, "want certainty" on the cutoff date rather than
merely waiting until 85 percent of Americans have digital television
sets.
Barton said he understands that broadcasters want to maintain the
value they offer by providing both analog and digital services, "but
just because it's a good value doesn't mean it's good public policy,"
he said.
Barton added that his preferences for the bill are to have a Dec.
31, 2006, hard cutoff date, omit multicast must carry, and have a
means test for low-income citizens to qualify for "a rebate" to
reimburse them for the purchase of a digital to analog converter box.
The bill would count all digital cable and satellite households as
DTV households.
Barton estimated the reimbursement would affect between 8 million and
10 million households and would cost between $400 million and $500
million.
"If you auction the spectrum for $5 billion to $17 billion, you can
afford to pay $400 million or $500 million to make this conversion,"
he said.
Also calling for a Dec. 31, 2006, cutoff date was U.S. Sen. John
McCain (R-Ariz.).
"It remains clear to me that now is the time act to expedite the
completion of this transition," said McCain, who was awarded the 2004
DTV Government Leadership Award by the Academy of Digital Television
Pioneers, during the summit proceedings.
"We need to take care of Americans with fixed incomes as we undertake
this transition," said McCain. "I pledge to continue to work on
behalf of the over-the-air viewers to ensure that no viewers are left
behind."
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), chairman of the subcommittee on
Technology, Innovation and Competitiveness, urged the audience to
contact their legislators to support the forthcoming hard-date
legislation, adding that any senators contacted should be reminded to
make sure the bill stays clean of any "poison pill" pork-barrel
riders that might threaten its acceptance.
Meanwhile, former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman
Dick Wiley cautioned against arriving at a cut-off date too quickly.
"We can't just pluck these dates out of the air," Wiley said during a
breakfast speech at the Summit. "We can't be precipitous or cavalier.
We have to get a date that makes sense, and it has to end the
transition in a way that serves not just political and budgetary
considerations, but serves technology, the marketplace" and the
viewing public.
Wiley suggested that by issuing a date far enough in advance,
manufacturers would have time to produce an ample supply of
affordable digital-to-analog conversion devices to meet the needs of
consumers faced with losing programming. He later suggested a firm
cutoff date of 2009 or 2010.
On another pending DTV topic, CEA's president/CEO Gary Shapiro
reminded the audience that the FCC is soon scheduled to decide on the
CEA's request to adjust the next phase of the DTV tuner mandate to
require all television sets with screen sizes 25 inches to 35 inches
to have ATSC tuners by March 1, 2006. Currently, 50 percent of all
such TVs are to have tuners by July 1, growing to 100 percent by July
1, 2006.
"If the FCC grants this petition, we believe it will allow for us to
sell an additional 3.3 million integrated DTV sets this year, as
manufacturers work toward that accelerated 100 percent threshold,"
Shapiro said.
Saying the digital television transition is now "well past the
tipping point," Shapiro released the following CEA market forecasts:
More than 3 million households have an ATSC tuner, growing to 16
million units by the end of the year, according to CEA market
research.
Seventy-one percent of consumers who were thinking about buying a new
TV are planning to purchase a digital cable-ready set.
In 2004 the industry sold 1 million digital-cable-ready DTV sets,
and the CEA forecasts that to triple in 2005.
The CEA said that more 16.5 million digital television products have
been sold since the DTV launch in 1998, representing almost $26
billion in cumulative revenues and means the consumer investment in
digital television is more than $30 million.
CEA market research predicts 20.2 million DTV products will be sold in 2005.
This year consumers will buy more digital televisions than analog
televisions, for the first time.
(For coverage of the IP & ©reatvity Conference, held the next day,
see www.TWICE.com and the April 4 print edition.)
DTV Academy Presents Annual Awards Greg Tarr
WASHINGTON - The Digital Television Academy presented its 2004
Academy of Digital Television Pioneers Awards during the Consumer
Electronics Association's tenth-annual HDTV Summit, held last week at
the Washington D.C. Convention Center.
The awards, presented during a luncheon honoring the DTV Academy,
recognized achievements made throughout 2004 in 10 categories:
Best DTV Over the Air Network : CBS
Best DTV Cable System : Comcast
Best DTV Cable or Satellite Service : DirecTV
Best DTV Satellite Programmer : ESPN
Best DTV Sporting Event : CBS, for Super Bowl XXXVIII
Best Original DTV Material : (tie) CBS, for CSI, and ESPN, for HD Sport Center
Best DTV Journalism : HDTV Insider
Best Industry DTV Leadership : Peter Fannon, Panasonic Corporation of
North America
Best Government DTV Leadership : Sen. John McCain
Best Retail DTV Leadership : Best Buy
The annual DTV Awards are independently voted on and bestowed by the
DTV Academy - a select group of 203 individuals who have played a
significant role in the decade-long effort to make digital television
a reality for consumers. The DTV Academy represents excellence in all
aspects of digital content development and delivery,
analog-to-digital transition leadership and the manufacture of
high-definition television (HDTV) products. More than half of the 203
DTV Academy members are individuals outside the consumer electronics
industry.
<< Copyright ©2005 Reed Business Information. All Rights Reserved. >>
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