Another obscure brand has joined DTV converter boxes the NTIA lists as certified coupon-eligible. The box is the FT300A, marketed by Sansonic USA of El Monte, Calif. Sansonic USA is a subsidiary of original design manufacturer Sansonic of Jiang Su, China. The Sansonic FT300A is the sixth box listed as NTIA-certified. Sansonic has submitted two additional boxes to the NTIA for coupon certification, Sansonics USA President Rory Courtain told us in an e-mail Friday. “We do hope to enter into programs with majors” such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart, he said. “The product will be sold under the Sansonic name.” The FT-330A has no analog passthrough or smart antenna interface, he said. “With regards to smart antenna, most agreed that the target audience did not need or would not want this feature, as it added cost,” he said. Late Friday, NTIA said it had certified a second Philco-branded box, the TB100HH9. Details on the TB100HH9 weren’t available at our deadline.
Paul Gluckman
Paul Gluckman, Executive Senior Editor, is a 30-year Warren Communications News veteran having joined the company in May 1989 to launch its Audio Week publication. In his long career, Paul has chronicled the rise and fall of physical entertainment media like the CD, DVD and Blu-ray and the advent of ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology from its rudimentary standardization roots to its anticipated 2020 commercial launch.
Best Buy sidestepped our questions Thursday on whether it plans to offer coupon-eligible DTV converter boxes under its Dynex or Insignia private-label brands. What Best Buy “can confirm is that we will be carrying coupon-eligible converter boxes in our stores and we will be participating in the coupon program,” Senior Vice President Mike Vitelli told us.
Skepticism about the government’s “motive” for turning off the analog service and subsidizing DTV converter boxes was common among participants in 18 focus groups that NTIA contractor IBM held in September and October to tweak the coupon application and the program’s messaging, according to an IBM report.
Feb. 17, 2008, a year to the day before analog service goes dark, marks the date when NTIA will begin mailing out DTV converter box coupons to consumers who can begin requesting them Jan. 1, Acting NTIA Administrator Meredith Baker told reporters in a phone briefing Tuesday. NTIA has certified 111 retail accounts to take part in the program, representing about 14,000 storefronts, Baker said.
Public Knowledge seeks a fourth condition in exchange for its backing the XM-Sirius merger, it told the FCC in an ex parte filing Friday. The combined company should agree to make its device and network technical specifications of “open and available to allow device manufacturers to develop, and consumers to use, any device they choose without interference,” Public Knowledge said. Devices should be FCC- certified “for receiving signals on the frequencies licensed to the merged entity” and have to comply with a “do-no-harm” requirement, Public Knowledge said. The new condition is needed “for the merger to be in the public interest,” it said. “After talking with hardware companies, we realized this is a concern of theirs,” a spokesman for the group told us by way of explaining why the proposal came so late. “As the FCC is still in the early stages of its analysis, we thought it proper to bring it to the attention of FCC staff.” Previously, Public Knowledge hinged its merger support on the combined company’s having to: (1) Offer a la carte or tiered programming pricing choices. (2) Make 5 percent of its capacity available to noncommercial educational and information programming over which it has no editorial control. (3) Hold the line on prices for its combined programming package for three years after the merger is approved.
In agreeing to buy Gemstar-TV Guide for about $2.8 billion in cash and stock, Macrovision has added “perhaps the most critical part of the puzzle” in becoming a one- stop-shop for content acquisition, security and navigation, Macrovision CEO Fred Ameroso told analysts in a conference call Friday to discuss the deal.
The FCC should quickly find that coupon-eligible DTV converter boxes without analog pass-through violate the All-Channel Receiver Act and sections 15.115(c) and 15.117(b) of commission rules, said a petition for declaratory ruling filed Thursday at the FCC by the Community Broadcasters Association.
NTIA certified the Magnavox TB100MW9 and Philco TB150HH9 DTV converter boxes as coupon-eligible, the agency said Thursday. Funai will market the boxes under the Magnavox and Philco brands it’s licensing from Philips, as we were first to report (CED Sept 27 p3). Contrary to earlier plans, however, neither box will sport a CEA-909 smart antenna interface, we've learned. Funai dispensed with the smart antenna feature because it added $5 to the final cost of the product and margins on the boxes are very slim, we're told. Funai is an important CE supplier to Wal-Mart, which is expected to carry both boxes. With the Magnavox and Philco set-tops, NTIA as of Thursday had certified five boxes as coupon-eligible, including two Digital Stream models and one from Zenith.
NTIA coupon program subcontractor CLC Services erred when it told us a consumer reporting a DTV converter box coupon lost or stolen can get it replaced (CED Dec 4 p5), the agency said Wednesday. CLC also was wrong in saying no “statutory prohibition” bars private sale of an active, lawfully acquired coupon on eBay or another means, the NTIA said. In fact, its rules, published in March, prohibit coupon resales, the agency said. Section 301.4(g) says the coupon “has no cash value” and “it shall be illegal to sell, duplicate or tamper with the coupon.”
Counting all the supply chain components that go into producing a DVD and delivering it to market, the average Fox packaged disc is responsible for releasing the equivalent of 0.75 pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, Fox Home Entertainment (FHE) found in study it conducted in July 2007.