Cable Carriage Of Digital Television Broadcast Signals Imperative For DTV Success

CEA Comments Filed With FCC Call For Capacity-Based Approach

22-Aug-01

The success of digital television (DTV) hinges on access to cable and DTV carriage is essential to meet this goal, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) stated in comments filed with the Commission. The FCC is currently reviewing local DTV broadcast signal carriage issues, specifically procurement of cable carriage. CEA filed the comments in response to the Commission's Further Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking on the matter.""Without assurance that digital broadcast signals will reach the 70 million American households that rely on a cable signal, broadcasters and programmers will have little incentive to produce compelling digital programming,"" CEA's Vice President of Technology Policy Michael Petricone said. ""Consumers will have less incentive to purchase digital television products and it will become less likely that the digital transition will be completed by the 2006 target date. Cable carriage of DTV is imperative.""CEA emphasized the importance of HDTV and digitally-originated programming in its filing, which the association called the ""linchpin"" of DTV's success. Noting that digital content must precede consumer demand for digital equipment, the association also rebuked the ""chicken and egg"" portrayal of the digital television transition and stated, ""Consumers should not be expected to purchase digital receivers in anxious anticipation that value-added content will eventually become available, especially given the current dearth of high quality, digitally originated programming.""The CEA filing also addressed the future of DTV through advanced services and called on the FCC to broadly define the term ""program-related."" The definition favored by CEA would encompass ""all information in any way related to free, non-subscription broadcast programming."" This would include program guides and other interactive content, and would differentiate digital content from traditional analog television.""We must not allow cable gatekeepers to prevent consumers from enjoying DTV or using services that allow them to navigate among content choices or access interactive and advanced services,"" CEA's Petricone commented. ""As we noted in our comments to the FCC, these options and services are the very future of television.""As the trade association of the consumer technology industries, CEA has been an active participant in negotiations as the Commission has formulated its DTV policies. Throughout the carriage of DTV broadcast signal matter at the FCC, CEA has called on the Commission to ensure: (1) that the DTV transition is hastened and facilitated by the dual or multicast carriage of broadcasters' digital signals, (2) that the DTV transition is marked by an abundance of value-added digital programming and (3) that DTV reaches its potential by fostering the development of advanced and interactive services. For more information about the CEA, visit www.ce.org.

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