[opendtv] News: Obama Puts Squeeze on TV Industry
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:05:53 -0500
Obama Puts Squeeze on TV Industry
By Kim McAvoy
TVNEWSDAY, Dec 10 2008, 3:24 PM ET
The Obama crowd is not waiting for Inauguration Day to begin managing
the FCC-regulated media.
At a meeting in Washington last Friday, Obama transition team
officials demanded that broadcasters and cable operators establish or
help fund call centers to handle the anticipated flood of complaints
and questions in the wake of the analog cut-off on Feb. 17, 2009.
The transition officials, led by one-time National Cable &
Telecommunications Association President Tom Wheeler, had invited
representatives of the broadcast, cable and consumer electronics
industries to the meeting to discuss what needs to be done to ensure
a smooth and successful DTV transition.
According to industry sources, Wheeler, who heads the Obama review
group looking at the FCC and other agencies, suggested that it makes
sense for the various segments of the TV industry to pick up the tab
for the call centers.
Broadcasters are the beneficiaries of billions of dollars worth of
free spectrum and cable operators are gaining more subscribers
because of the DTV transition, he said. He also noted that the
consumer electronics industry is reaping billions of dollars from the
sale of DTV products.
In addition to NCTA, Wheeler once headed the Cellular
Telecommunications & Internet Association. Today, he is managing
director of Core Capital Partners, a high-tech investment firm.
He was joined at the meeting by fellow transition members Larry
Irving and Larry Strickling.
Irving is the former head of Commerce Department's National
Telecommunications and Information Administration and he serves on
the transition's Commerce Department review team.
Strickling comes from the Obama presidential campaign and was the
FCC's Common Carrier Bureau chief under former FCC Chairman Bill
Kennard. His role on the transition is unclear, but his name has
surfaced as a possible FCC chairman.
Sources say that Wheeler, Irving and Strickling ran the meeting.
However, FCC transition team leaders Susan Crawford and Kevin Werbach
were also on hand. Crawford is a professor of law at the University
of Michigan, teaching communications law and Internet law. Werbach is
an assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the
University
Broadcaster representatives at the meeting included David Rehr and
Jonathan Collegio of the NAB; Kurt Wimmer of Gannett; Scott
Blumenthal of LIN TV; Maureen O'Connell and Dianne Smith of Fox;
Susan Fox of Walt Disney Co.; Anne Lucey of CBS; Brian Brady,
president of Northwest Broadcasting; and Margaret Tobey of NBC
Universal.
Representing cable was National Cable & Telecommunications
Association President Kyle McSlarrow.
The Consumer Electronics Association sent Michael Petricone and Jamie Hedlund.
None of the industry organizations or individuals at the meeting
would comment on the record. The transition team officials did not
respond to repeated phone calls.
However, the transition team asked the industries group to submit
ideas and comments about the DTV transition and said it would post
them on the Obama-Biden transition Web site.
Setting up and operating one or more DTV call centers is an expensive
undertaking.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has promised to dedicate much of the
additional $20 million Congress gave the agency for DTV education to
funding the agency's call center, which was tested in September when
the Wilmington, N.C., market made an early shift to DTV.
NAB's Rehr wrote Martin in October urging the agency to use the extra
congressional money to make the FCC call center as "robust and
prepared as possible for the massive number of consumer calls that
will come in during these last few months before the transition is
completed on Feb. 17, 2009."
But whatever the FCC has earmarked for its call center, the Obama
team apparently feels it isn't enough.
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