Broadcaster Compliance And Cable Plug-And-Play Agreement Approval Critical To DTV Transition Momentum, Says CEA

Consumer Groups And Cable Industry Agree In Comments Filed With FCC

29-May-03

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to swiftly adopt the cable-consumer electronics digital television (DTV) equipment compatibility agreement (""plug-and-play"" agreement) and to reject broadcaster calls for transition delays. CEA's comments were filed as part of the Commission's periodic review of rules and policies affecting the analog-to-DTV transition. ""The continued lack of an FCC-approved, cable-ready plug-and-play standard that will allow national interoperability between digital cable systems and DTV products continues to be a significant obstacle to the DTV rollout,"" CEA wrote in the filing. ""The Commission has an industry agreement before it that sets out proposed standards and CEA calls for the Commission's expeditious approval of this agreement without significant modification. Until that happens, TV manufacturers face unnecessary obstacles in designing and marketing the equipment necessary for most consumers to embrace DTV."" CEA also called on the Commission to reject broadcaster calls for delay in the FCC's DTV transition decision-making process. ""CEA joins consumer groups and others in urging the FCC not to allow broadcasters to stall in performing their responsibilities,"" said CEA in its reply comments. ""The FCC's requirements for construction of the digital stations were adopted in April, 1997--six full years ago. Broadcasters have enjoyed more than ample time to plan, construct, and place on air their digital stations, yet after six years only 25 percent of commercial television broadcasters have on-the-air facilities capable of reaching the viewers of their analog signal."" CEA noted that the Consumer Federation of America's (CFA) FCC filing last month remarked on the paucity of commercial broadcasters that have brought full-power digital signals on the air and observed that operating at low power means that a percentage of homes within a signal's analog service cannot receive the station's digital signal. Additionally, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and the American Cable Association (ACA) similarly pointed out that in many cases the broadcasters' reduced-power DTV signals do not reach cable system headends or are poor quality signals below the level necessary for retransmission. ""A number of commenters reviewed the facts and agreed that broadcasters are grossly underutilizing their spectrum by limited operations and inadequate, under-power transmitters. This leaves valuable spectrum capacity available that could, and should, be put to productive use by others on an interim basis. The result, as CFA concludes, is that 'while broadcasters impose more costs on consumers through tuner mandates and mandatory receiver performance standards, they fail to live up to their obligations to get a full-power signal on the air.'"" In order to accomplish the DTV transition as soon as possible, CEA urged the FCC to set July 1, 2004 as the deadline for both full analog service area replication and maximization by network affiliates in the top 100 markets, and July 1, 2005 as the deadline for all other commercial and non-commercial broadcasters. ""To further delay broadcasters' obligations beyond 2004/2005 would be inappropriate and frustrate the intent of Congress to accomplish the DTV transition as soon as possible,"" CEA wrote. ""The longer these deadlines are delayed, the longer large amounts of spectrum remain unused--spectrum that public-safety agencies desperately need and on which other users are waiting to deploy advanced services."" For more information about the CEA, visit www.ce.org.

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