[opendtv] Re: FCC rules for cable after the OTA TV digital transition
- From: "John Shutt" <shuttj@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:31:37 -0400
----- Original Message -----
From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
Notice: only the "primary video" and program-related material is
included.
Notice that the "primary video" must be carried in analog form or in digital
form only if ALL subscribers have digital reception capability.
"[P]rogram-related material" is the Descriptive Video Service, Second Audio
Program, or both as necessary. Program-related material does not include
PSIP.
No multicast must-carry. I'm not sure what this requires cable
companies to do about EPG. Logically, I'd expect that they can include
whatever info there is in PSIP in their own EPG. But they may also have
to transmit PSIP to meet the letter of the law?
Forcing cable companies to have multicast must carry in analog is never
going to happen. Cable companies will continue to use TV Guide Channel for
their EPG. Individual broadcaster's PSIP cannot be carried in analog.
Cable companies are free to carry multicasts in the digital tier.
I wonder what this ruling means for the "must-carry/retransmission consent"
choice that broadcasters used to have. It allowed some broadcasters to
negotiate multicast carry, or to get local avail ad spots, in return for
retrans consent.
In essence, this is the definition of cable's transition scheme. For
OTA, the transition was between 1998 and 2009. For cable, it extends to
2012, with the possibility of a further extension.
This codifies what the FCC intended all along, which was to have cable
companies be the Digital to Analog converter for the vast majority of
Americans, by requiring the broadcaster's primary video source to be carried
in analog. No more, and no less.
Commissioner Adelstein dissented in part.
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-276576A4.pdf
"I must dissent in part because the Order does not provide small, often
rural, cable operators a much-needed exemption from the carriage
obligations in this Order. Unlike the major MSOs and LECs, small system
operators face serious financial and technological resource constraints,
and the Commission should consider these limitations moving forward.
Complete and utter nonsense. When Analog OTA is shut off, these small cable
operators will have an analog channel freed up for the insertion of the
"primary video" of the Broadcaster's DTV signal. It's a wash. The only
expense is to provide an ATSC receiver and downconverter for each OTA
channel at the cable head end, which is a minor expense even for the
smallest Mom and Pop cable company.
He also thinks the FCC should have better specified what public service
the DTV transition was supposed to provide. And that there hasn't been
enough effort on DTV consumer education for OTA users.
It is not up to the FCC to specify what public service the DTV transition
provides. That is the job of the Congress who mandated the DTV transistion.
The FCC's only legitimate role is to implement that which Congress mandated,
not to attempt to justify it.
So, obtusely, this will dissuade OTA broadcasters from developing
interesting multicasts.
I don't think it will have that effect in the least. As I said earlier,
this only codifies into rules the intent all along of the FCC to have cable
companies be the Digital to Analog converter for the majority of Americans.
Or alternatively, OTA broadcasters can create
good multiplexes and cable might willingly carry them, as PBS seems to
have done.
A goodwill stunt by the NCTA, and one that I am glad to exploit.
And if cable doesn't carry them, perhaps they would create
strong demand for an OTA receiver to be included with cable STBs. (Or
people making use of the integrated OTA receiver in their new sets.)
Yes to the latter, fat chance to the former.
John
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