[opendtv] News: NAB/MSTV Tout Digital Dozen
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 07:35:09 -0400
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA631474.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
NAB/MSTV Tout Digital Dozen
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/1/2005 4:13:00 PM
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Association for
Maximum Service Television (MSTV), a broadcast spectrum group, say
they have received a dozen quotes from consumer-electronics firms for
a digital-to-analog converter box.
The deadline was July 29.
NAB/MSTV did not identify the companies, saying they had promised
them confidentiality. But MSTV President David Donovan said they
included "some of the largest consumer-electronics companies in the
world."
That would have to include some members of the Consumer Electronics
Association (CEA), whose officials were not pleased when the request
was issued.
Donovan also said the groups planned to have completed their review
of the proposals by around Labor Day. NAB/MSTV want a prototype for a
box by the end of the year.
The request for quotes was issued in June. Following much talk in
Congress about the cost of converting to digital and of subsidizing
analog-only viewers, the two associations said they would start
taking an active role in developing a low-cost analog-to-digital
converter box.
There is more than technology at play, however.
NAB and the Consumer Electronics Association have been in a war of
words over the switch to digital. CEA has pushed a hard date while
NAB has argued that could disenfranchise viewers.
At one point, the two groups were planning to work together to
promote the digital switch, but had a falling- out and have been at
some variation of public loggerheads ever since. However, Donovan
says he is looking forward to working with consumer electronics
companies on the new box.
The June announcement continued that war, seeming to imply that CEA
members would need some guidance from broadcasters to insure they
could produce low-cost devices that also worked well. CEA certainly
saw it as a slap. "It's ridiculous," said Michael Petricone, VP,
technology policy for CEA, when the RFQ was issued. "They are making
up an issue where no issue exists."
Donovan said Monday that the issue is very real and that
broadcasters' self interest is tied to functioning and affordable
boxes for over 20 million analog-only viewers.
"The issue is balancing price and high quality. Congresss has certain
expectations about cost and we want to make sure these things work,
and work well."
He would not comment on what those cost expectations were, but
numbers from $40 to $120 per box have been kicked around on the Hill,
with $50-$70 the favorite range--though even lower would be favored
heavily by legislators who see cutting off analog service as a
potential new third rail of politics.
Many consider the digital switch to be political poison for both the
TV industry and Washington, particularly if analog television
consumers are left without a low-cost or no-cost alternative to
digital.
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