[opendtv] FCC Report and Order for cable after 2/17/2009

From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 18:03:17 -0500
(Sorry. Corrected the subject line.)

FCC 07-170 does not seem to order anything that wasn't expected, as far
as I can tell.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-170A1.pdf

"No material degradation" of HD programs, no multicast must-carry, and
cable can either provide analog and digital tiers, or be all digital and
provide appropriate STBs for analog customers. And this that I hadn't
noticed this previously, but now, "Like CEA's proposals, our rules are
designed to ensure that all subscribers to a cable system have 'in the
clear' access to all must carry stations."

But they do not insist that this must mean "using QAM and MPEG-2
compression." So I'm not sure what teeth this has. If the FCC does not
insist on 64 or 256-QAM and MPEG-2 compression, the supposedly "in the
clear" channels could be sent using 8-PSK and Quicktime, and switched
video, mandating use of their special STB anyway. So what's the point?
Feel-good words? The CEA wanted for cable companies to make their
must-carry channels available directly to TVs, just like their
unencrypted analog channels are now. I'm sure consumers want that too.

Much is made of not mandating that "every bit" of the broadcaster's
signal must be carried, and Commissioner Adelstein especially seems to
have listened to some indignant cable industry execs insisting how these
bits "are not even perceptible to humans," or words to that effect.
(FWIW, if I were Adelstein, I would have instead used the argument that
cable should be free to adopt new codecs, given their above stance on
MPEG-2, which makes the all bits argument moot.)

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-170A4.pdf

Chairman Martin, instead, takes more the tack of saying that without
this order, cable companies could just as easily have dropped all local
broadcast stations at 0001 hours, 18 Feb 2008.

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-170A2.pdf

Copps, Tate, and McDowell also commented.

The effect this order OUGHT ot have, in a sensible marketplace, would be
that OTA broadcasters would compete with their now-available multicast
streams with interesting content that people want to see. Shame the
cable companies into carrying the multicasts, or convince the viewing
public to use their OTA receivers. I think the decision of NBC to air
third party content is exactly the sort of thing broadcasters could use
in their multicasts, for example, and would do so more readily if they
had cable carriage.

The effect it will likely have, instead, is that most OTA broadcasters
will only make use of OTA multicast if they get cable carriage, or
otherwise devalue this bonus spectrum.

Bert
 
 
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[opendtv] FCC Report and Order for cable after 2/17/2009

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