Vendors vying to win NTIA’s contract to run the DTV coupon program have had about three months to cool their heels since submitting their bids in early May, but there will be little rest after the contract is awarded next week. The winning vendor faces one tight deadline after another to get the program rolling, with little wiggle room in the schedule.
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.
CEA opposes a bill that would order the FCC to study parental-control blocking technologies, because there’s already “an abundance of parental controls available today should parents choose to use them,” a spokesman said. S- 602, introduced by Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., was unanimously approved Thursday in a Senate Commerce Committee markup (CED Aug 3 p3). It would ask the FCC to “consider advanced blocking technologies” to be applied to a wide variety of platforms including wired, wireless and Internet. The blocking technologies could be used for TVs, DVD players, VCRs, cable set-top boxes, satellite receivers and wireless devices, the bill says. “Though the Commerce Committee directs the FCC to conduct an inquiry, we do not believe that there is any need for regulation in this area,” the CEA spokesman said.
The new CEA 608-D standard on “Line 21 Data Services” appears to preclude the use of multiple parental control rating systems for DTV and analog TV receivers, the Coalition for Independent Ratings Services told the FCC in an ex parte filing. If so, CEA-608-D “contradicts” the Coalition’s understanding from talks with ATSC and CEA that RRT 0x05 “could incorporate independent ratings systems, in addition to the industry system,” the group said. An RRT, for “regional rating table,” gives a receiver the content advisory information it needs to block unwanted programs. The coalition also is concerned that CEA-608-D may be inconsistent with FCC rules that require allowing multiple ratings systems, it told the Commission. “While precluding multiple ratings may be defensible relative to analog receivers, where Line 21 has limited space, there are no comparable space constraints associated with the software in digital receivers,” the coalition said. CEA is pleased that “there is apparent agreement among all parties that RRT 0x05 is the right technical means for DTVs to accommodate changes to the content advisory rating system, as required by FCC rules,” a spokesman said. “The informative annex in CEA-608-D does not contradict the FCC requirement or the use of RRT 0x05 as the container for the changed content advisory rating system, which could comprise rating dimensions from multiple independent rating system providers.”
Blu-ray appears to have scored a key promotional coup for the upcoming IFA show in Berlin. Badges issued to trade visitors and journalists at past IFA shows have been sponsor- free. But passes just issued for this year’s event bear the slogan, “Tickets powered by Blu-ray Disc.” A business-card- sized ad on the back of the badges declares that “The Blu-ray revolution is here,” and beckons visitors to the Blu-ray Disc Association’s IFA stand in Hall 6.2. Blu-ray is the “maximum hi-def experience,” it says. Blu-ray has scheduled an IFA press conference for Aug. 30. Toshiba has said it and the HD DVD Promotional Group plan separate IFA press conferences, but they are as yet unlisted on the IFA schedule.
A combined XM-Sirius could begin offering newly announced programming packages to owners of existing radios within six months after a merger is consummated, senior Sirius executives told analysts in a Q2 earnings call Tuesday.
Last month’s 5-4 Supreme Court ruling reversing the “per se” rule against minimum resale price maintenance (CED June 29 p1) gives manufacturers of everything from TV sets to clothing the green light to raise consumer prices, opponents of the decision told a Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearing Tuesday. But supporters defended the decision in Leegin v. PSKS as sound antitrust policy, because there’s no evidence that minimum resale price maintenance is anticompetitive.
LG and Samsung have scheduled back-to-back news conferences Aug. 30 at Berlin’s IFA, where their dual-format players are expected to get the bulk of media attention. LG has said it has no plans to phase out its current “Super Multi Blue” dual-format player because it’s very popular and the company has just ramped up production to meet growing demand (CED July 23 p3). LG has been mum about whether it plans a second-generation model this year. The current player, at $1,199-list in the U.S., doesn’t support HD DVD interactivity, nor does it have an Ethernet port, as the HD DVD standard requires. Samsung’s dual-format player, the BD- UP5000, will debut Q4 at $1,049-list in the U.S. and offer full HD DVD interactivity and an Ethernet port, the company said last week (CED July 26 p8). Samsung’s deck will bear the HD DVD logo; LG’s current player doesn’t.
A “large volume” of notices of intent have been filed with the NTIA for certification to supply coupon-eligible DTV converter boxes, NTIA Administrator John Kneuer told the Senate Commerce Committee’s hearing last week on DTV consumer outreach (CED July 27 p1). Under NTIA rules, a manufacturer must file a notice at least three months before providing the agency a test report (CED July 23 p1). Two production samples must accompany the test report after NTIA sends the manufacturer its authorization. NTIA has contracted with the FCC Laboratory to verify that the boxes “meet our specs,” Kneuer said. In addition to the notices filed, “we have some boxes already in,” Kneuer said. Responding to a question from Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., on whether field-testing of the boxes has started, Kneuer said he didn’t know. He said tests will be “ongoing.” “I would love to know if any of the boxes have been field-tested and what the results of those field tests were,” McCaskill said. “The only thing that’s going to make people madder is they get these coupons and they get the boxes and their signal is degraded.” NTIA has said it will release the names of CE makers taking part in the coupon program once their boxes are certified as coupon-eligible. A “few” retailers also have filed notices with NTIA asserting they want to be certified for taking part in the coupon program, an agency spokesman said. But retailers likewise won’t be identified until their certification is approved, he said. Retailers have until March 31, 2008, to seek certification, NTIA rules say.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau cited Conn’s for 10 violations of the Commission’s analog-only labeling order. Required consumer alert labels were missing from 10 products promoted on the Conn’s e-commerce site when agents visited it July 18-20, according to the July 26 citation. Agents visited 1,089 brick-and-mortar stores and websites through July 24, issuing 262 citations for violating the May 25 labeling order, FCC officials told Congress at two hearings last week (CED July 27 p1). The Conn’s citation was the first against a retailer in about a month. We checked the Conn’s site late Friday and found nine of the products still advertised without a consumer alert. The 10th, a Toshiba MW24F52 TV/VCR/DVD combo, was gone from the site. Conn’s executives couldn’t be reached for comment by our Friday deadline.
XM and Sirius expect by fall to complete their document submissions at the Justice Department and should know soon afterward how the government might rule on their merger proposal, XM Chairman Gary Parsons told analysts in a Q2 earnings call Thursday.