Policy And Industry Leaders Declare HDTV A 'Win' For Consumers At CEA's Ninth Annual HDTV Summit

CEAís Shapiro Outlines Prescriptions For DTV Success

31-Mar-04

High-definition television (HDTV) is a marketplace success with a bright future appeared to be the general consensus among top industry and policy leaders in the analog to digital television transition participating in the Consumer Electronics Associationís (CEA) ninth annual HDTV Summit - Partnership, Policy, and Profits Viewpoints held in Washington, D.C. While the summit featured debates surrounding consumer education initiatives, market research projections, fair use rights, and analog spectrum shut-off predictions, the daylong conference was marked by a shared sense of optimism about the transition to DTV. ìThe future is here,î declared House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) as he began his opening keynote remarks. ìHDTV is a win, win, win - particularly for consumers.îìIt is fitting that we gather to discuss digital and high-definition television as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of color television,î remarked CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro in his welcome address. ìWhen our parents were marveling over seeing Mickey Mouse in color, they had no idea that one day television would make you feel like you were right on the stage with Mickey. HD represents how far we truly have come since those heady days of the first color broadcast.î Shapiro argued that the transition to color TV provides a poor measuring stick for the move to DTV. He noted that it took 10 years for 1 million color televisions to be sold, while that milestone was reached in less than 5 years in the DTV transition. Shapiro also announced that more than 9 million digital television sets and monitors have been sold to date since introduction of the product in late 1998. He then reported that January 2004 digital television product sales totaled 438,233 units, representing some $700 million and marking a 147-percent increase in unit sales over January 2003. In 2003, he added, consumer enthusiasm for HDTV was so strong CEA upwardly revised its digital television sales projections. CEA now projects that 5.7 million digital television units will be sold this year, 9.4 million in 2005, 15.6 million in 2006 and 23.0 million in 2007. While praising the strength and momentum of the digital transition, Shapiro provided summit attendees with four policy prescriptions for government and industry to follow to ensure the continued success of the shift to digital television: Broadcasters must be required to deliver DTV broadcasts at full transmission power; cable operators must retransmit broadcast DTV signals in the same format in which they are delivered over-the-air; consumersí fair use rights must be protected; and all involved in the DTV transition should use their collective voice to promote HDTV.CEA Director of Industry Analysis Sean Wargo gave an overview of CEAís latest consumer research as well as DTV sales figures and forecasts. Wargo reported that the vast majority of consumers are now familiar with the basic concepts of digital and high-definition television with only twenty-four percent of consumers reporting that they remain confused about digital television. He emphasized that those who remain confused tend to fit the typical demographic for consumers who have a fear of technology in general, noting that the percentage was not surprising particularly for a technology such as DTV which is so early in its lifecycle. Wargo also displayed data showing the strong growth in sales of flat panel displays such as plasma and LCD products and announced CEA sales forecasts projecting 62.4 million cumulative DTV unit sales by 2007. Philadelphia Daily News Reporter Jonathan Takiff moderated the Consumer Education panel featuring Bryan Burns, Vice President, Strategic Business Planning and Development, ESPN; Inc.; Mark Cuban, Chairman and President, HDNet; Sam Goldstein, Director and Producer, Capital Region Broadcasters, WRGB TV-6; Gigi Sohn, President and Co-Founder, Public Knowledge; Clint Stinchcomb, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Discovery HD Theater; Jack Williams, President and CEO, Comcast SportsNet; and GaryYacoubian Vice President, MyerEmco AudioVideo. Asked how retailers can better inform consumers, Yacoubian replied that consumers tend to focus so heavily on the product definitions and specifications that they forget to simply watch and listen. Sohn reiterated the concerns of others expressed throughout the day regarding efforts to curtail consumersí home recording and fair use rights. She accused the content community of playing a lobbying shell game and argued that approaches such as the broadcast flag and selectable output control ìretard the transitionî and only serve to confuse consumers.CEA Vice President of Technology Policy Michael Petricone moderated the afternoon policy session, ìA Spectrum Odyssey,î which featured top staff from the Federal Communications Commission and Capitol Hill discussing transition issues, such as the broadcast flag and future uses of the returned analog spectrum. Hillary Brill, Legislative Counsel to Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA), voiced the congressmanís concern regarding consumer education and awareness. She argued that the greatest obstacle at this stage of the transition is ensuring consumers know what theyíre getting when they purchase a digital television set, subscribe to a programming service or potentially encounter downresolution. Rick Chessen, Chair of the FCCís DTV Task Force, agreed that consumer education remains one of the primary challenges in the transition. Brill and Paul Martino, counsel to the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, also spoke out strongly on behalf of the congressman against proposals to allow for the ìdownresingî of DTV content that would reduce the image quality of digital programming.CEOs of the cable, broadcast and consumer electronics industries joined moderator Mike Feazel, Editor of Communications Daily, on the stage for the final session of the day. Eddie Fritts, President and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB); Robert Sachs, President and CEO of the National Cable and Tele-communications Association (NCTA); and Shapiro engaged in a spirited debate regarding DTV station power levels, cable carriage requirements and capabilities. Shapiro reiterated his call for consumer education while Fritts and Sachs skirmished over the must-carry responsibilities of cable system operators. The HDTV Summit also featured the 4th Annual Academy of DTV Pioneers Luncheon and Awards honoring the excellence in all aspects of digital content development and delivery, analog-to-digital transition leadership and the manufacture of HDTV products. Honorees included FCC Chairman Michael Powell, the CBS network and ABCís Monday Night Football. A full list of award winners and more information regarding the HDTV Summit can be found at www.ce.org.

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