[opendtv] Re: News: FCC Adopts DTV-Related Items

Just a personal opinion, but I think everybody would be better off if they all (FCC, broadcasters, cable guys, CE guys) cut a deal such that:
1) The cable guys would agree carry to the PRIMARY channel of all must carry and (maybe subject to retrans consent) network shows in the lifeline (limited basic) tier in unencrypted QAM MPEG-2 format, and
2) The broadcasters would not push for any more analog or multi-must-carry, and
3) The CE guys would sometimes (and foolishly sometimes not) offer the option of digital unencrypted QAM reception for profitable but minimal extra cost in new digital TV's, PVR's, etc. Optionally they can also try to sell some cable card TV's if they think that works for them.
4) Cable a la carte pricing would be left as a separate issue to be worked out later somehow.
Since all new TV's are now digital, including the low end, the agreement would give consumers a bit more incentive to buy new TV's in the couple years before the cut-off and help get the cable networks to all digital, adding lots of bandwidth and thus lowering the cost of providing other channels as economics might demand. 

- Tom



Manfredi, Albert E wrote:

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6436592.html?display=Breaking
+News&referral=SUPP&nid=2228



FCC Adopts DTV-Related Items

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/25/2007 5:27:00 PM



[ ... ]



The FCC is seeking comment on whether requiring cable to carry TV
station signals in both analog and digital formats after the
transition is necessary to meet the 1992 Cable Act's requirement
that cable must deliver a "viewable" signal of any station opting
for mandatory carriage (must-carry).



[ ... ]



Chairman Kevin Martin did not share those reservations, saying
that cable should not be allowed to "just cut off signals" and
said that he didn't think that consumers should be "forced to rent
a set-top box."



This is such a non-issue. Why can't they put it to rest?

In the more distant past, e.g. with cable companies that used dual-coax
drops to homes, STBs were installed by default. Clever customers knew
the box could be bypassed for certain unscrambled channels, and they
could install an A/B switch, but the FCC didn't prevent the cable
company practice of forcing the STB into every home. Of course, the STB
was always the case for scrambled analog, with no FCC disapproval. So I
would think that still today, providing the "viewable signal" did not
preclude the use of a rented or subscriber-owned STB.

And that doesn't even address the most obvious cases these days, which
are DBS to analog or digital TVs, and digital cable to digital TVs.
These cases typically require an STB as well, rented or owned outright.

So if this viewable signal from private service providers has *always*
assumed the STB to be a permitted ingredient, why in the world is there
a problem now? The cable companies and DBS companies should be allowed
to continue to do whatever they prefer. Either offer an analog tier
through their network, or offer all digital, with local in-home
conversion via STBs.

Not to mention, again, that analog-output STBs have *always* been part
of the game plan for the DTT transition. So it stands to reason that
cable should be allowed the same latitude. If it's okay for OTA (during
transition) and for DBS (perennially), why is it not okay for cable?

And furthermore, Michael Powell was clever enough to know that mandating
digital cable integrated tuners was not a good idea. Another example of
the FCC already having accepted the fact that umbillical systems could
assume use of an STB to provide "viewable signals" if they could get
their customers to buy it.

Caveat emptor, through the millenia.

Bert
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Tom Barry                  trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx  



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