[opendtv] News: FCC May Act Soon on CEA's DTV Tuner Petition

FCC May Act Soon on CEA's DTV Tuner Petition

December 31, 2004 12:00am
Source: Warren Publishing, Inc.

Warren Publishing's COMMUNICATIONS DAILY reports that the CE 
industry's petition to move up the deadline for all TV sets with 
25"-36" screen sizes to have DTV tuners began circulating on the 
FCC's 8th floor. As you may recall, in November the CEA and the 
Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition (CERC), in a joint petition, 
asked the Commission that the July 2006 date by which all such 
receivers must have DTV tuners be moved up to March 2006 and that the 
July 2005 date by which 1/2 the sets must be ATSC-capable be 
eliminated.

The article goes on to indicate that broadcasters oppose delaying 
when tuners should be implemented, and that the CE industry argued 
that the 50% requirement would slow consumer migration to TVs with 
built-in DTV tuners because consumers would choose a lower-priced 
product with otherwise similar features, except for the DTV tuner.

The last paragraph is the most interesting however:

  "The CE industry should be placing labels on those analog sets, 
informing the consumer that the sets won't work in 4-5 years, after 
the DTV transition is complete, a source said, but CEA has said it 
doesn't want to place labels on sets.

When are broadcasters going to STOP misleading people about the 
potential obsolescence of analog TV receivers? There is NOTHING that 
is going to stop working in 4-5 years, unless the set dies. Analog 
cable will still be around, not to mention NTSC broadcasts; or have 
broadcasters resigned themselves to the notion that a HARD 2009 
analog cutoff deadline will be enforced by Congress?

And EVERY analog set will KEEP WORKING with the addition of an 
appropriate external set-top box, be it from a cable company, DBS 
operator, or an ATSC receiver sold at retail.

My gut instincts tell me that the CE industry is going to win this round...

Regards
Craig
 
 
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