SHARP EXCHANGES AT ALTV DIGITAL TV PANEL
LAS VEGAS -- Mandatory digital tuners in TV sets was subject of sharp exchanges at ALTV panel here Mon., with CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro arguing that consumers shouldn’t be required to buy unwanted tuners while Cox TV Pres. Andrew Fisher said mandatory tuners were “a must… if we're going to get this [DTV] going.” Paxson TV CEO Lowell Paxson said “I'm ready to go to the Supreme Court” on tuner issue, saying All-Channel Receiver Act passed by Congress in 1964 requiring UHF tuners “is the law.” Paxson also got into exchange with panelist Susan Fox, deputy chief of FCC Mass Media Bureau, on what he said was agency’s slowness in acting on DTV applications by TV stations.
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To attract consumers to digital, what broadcasters need is “good solid programming,” not mandatory rules, Shapiro said. “The bottom line,” he said, “is let the consumers decide how they want to receive their signals.” On requiring digital tuners, Fox said “we think at this point, [seeking comments is] the right call… but that could change.” Fisher countered that DTV sets today “just aren’t very good” -- and if regulation isn’t answer, then manufacturers must build better sets.
Fisher said broadcasters were building “a total new industry and we really need help” in such things as requiring minimum standards built into TV sets. Turning directly to Shapiro (sitting next to him on podium), Fisher asked CEA to back mandatory labels on TV receivers purchased by consumers: “That seems like a simple request.” Shapiro said that with or without govt. action, “it will take a little while… more in 2002” for manufacturers to provide DTV-integrated receivers. But, he said, last week’s action by NAB and MSTV endorsing 8-VSB standard provided “more incentive” to manufacturers. Fisher said key in 8- VSB decision was that industry, while not unanimous (CD Jan 18 p4), now was “about to put as much fire-power on one issue as you'll ever see in our industry.”
Moderator Charles Sherman of NAB said industry was well ahead of FCC mandates for switch-over. However, Paxson questioned whether industry would be able to meet deadlines -- blaming what he charged was Commission inactivity. He said Pax TV has 16 operating DTV stations and “I'm waiting for 44 more” to be approved by FCC. He cited tower, equipment and zoning delays in saying industry wouldn’t be able to meet agency’s May 2002 deadline for handling DTV applications. Fox disputed Paxson’s figures on FCC DTV grants, saying 1,890 applications had been filed and 915 had been granted (most within last 6 months). Of 975 pending applications, she said, “most are ready to go” and will be granted in next few weeks.
In his state of industry address, ALTV Pres. James Hedlund called for regulatory “balance” at FCC for emerging industries. He was critical of ex-Chmn. Kennard, saying he and “his predecessor [Reed Hundt] got their public policy positions wrong - - dead wrong -- when it came to over-the-air television… Why is it they kept trying to load us down with more and more money- losing regulations under the guise of public interest.” He said broadcasting was a mature industry “in the midst of a terribly complex and expensive effort to reinvent ourselves in a digital world.” In fight over cable must-carry, he said cable industry’s claim of “capacity problems… are self-inflicted. They don’t hesitate to expand capacity for their own program channels, for high-speed modems, or for telephony.”