[opendtv] News: Broadcasters Offer Own Ferree TV Plan
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 07:35:53 -0400
Broadcasters Offer Own Ferree TV Plan
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/1/2004 6:20:00 PM
Late Friday, broadcasters sent a letter to the Federal Communications
Commission spelling out what version of its proposed
digital-transition plan (the so-called Ferree plan) would pass muster
with the industry.
Tops on their list of any plan for ending the transition and
reclaiming analog spectrum is full digital cable carriage of all free
services provided by broadcasters,including any free digital
multicast channels.
The Ferree plan proposes to speed the transition by allowing cable
digital signals converted to analog to count toward the 85% digital
market-penetration threshold Congress has set for return of analog.
That means that rather than having to wait until 85% of TV
households have at least one digital set before it reclaims analog
spectrum for auction--which some predict could be a decade or more
away--the government could reclaim it in half the time or less by
defining that 85% as including TV households that receive a cable
digital signal converted to analog, even though they would not be
benefiting from the new higher-resolution, greater functionality
service.
NAB and major broadcast groups argue that any cable conversion of
digital broadcast signals to analog should occur at the home, not the
cable head-end (the Ferree plan would allow downcoversion at the
head-end).
Finally, the FCC should not authorize unlicensed devices in digital
white spaces, and should make sure to allocate enough spectrum for
broadcast tools such as wireless microphones and hand-held DTV
cameras.
How does the cable industry feel about full digital carriage. No
surprise there either, but in response to the broadcaster's pitch,
the National Cable & Telecommunications Association said in its own
epistle: "The latest FCC filing by the broadcast industry is simply a
recycled version of broadcasters' previous demands that cable
operators be required by the Commission to carry half a dozen or more
video channels per broadcast station rather than let multicast
carriage be determined by market competition with other program
networks."
In case we missed the point, NCTA concluded: "The broadcast
industry's submission does nothing to advance the digital TV
transition or promote a serious discussion about how to complete the
transition.
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