In a much broader FCC crackdown than previously known, agents from at least 15 field and district offices began fanning out to CE stores throughout the country May 29 to check retailer compliance with the Commission’s new analog labeling order (CED April 26 p1), documents posted on the FCC site show. The spot inspections have produced 150-200 citations since May 30 against stores and chain owners accused of failing to post “consumer alerts” with analog-only products since the Commission’s order took effect May 25.
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.
The FCC was quick to begin enforcing a May 25 order requiring retailers to post “consumer alerts” at point-of- sale next to legacy analog-only TV products (CED April 26 p1). The Commission Thurs. released copies of official “citations” sent this week via certified mail to Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Kmart, RadioShack and Target warning the 6 chains they're in violation of the order because their e-commerce sites don’t carry the alerts on products that require them.
CES 2007 drew 143,695 attendees, according to an independent audit, CEA said Wed. That’s a 5.6% decline from the audited attendance at the 2006 event. CES drew a record 27,000 international attendees, CEA said. That seemed an implied slap at IFA, with which CES has jousted for honors as the world’s top CE trade show.
Two years ago, a top FCC official promised vigorous enforcement of the Commission’s DTV tuner mandate (CED June 14/05 p1). But the agency kept silent until late last week, when for the first time it released notices of apparent liability (NALs) against 2 CE suppliers. The NALs accused Syntax-Brillian and Regent USA of “willful and repeated” violations of the requirement and proposed heavy fines (CED June 6 p1). Talk in CE circles is that the FCC’s crackdown may only have just begun.
Syntax-Brillian plans to appeal an FCC notice slapping the company with $2,899,575 in fines for “willful and repeated” violations of the Commission’s DTV tuner mandate, CEO Vincent Sollitto told us. Syntax-Brillian has until June 30 to file an appeal, which the company will base on statute of limitation grounds, Sollitto said.
“Form DTV-1” -- just posted on NTIA’s site -- is the application retailers must use to seek participation in the DTV coupon program. Retailers signing the form certify that they: (1) Have been in the CE business at least a year and have completed a Central Contractor Registration (required to get govt. reimbursements); (2) Have in place easily audited procedures or systems for fighting waste, fraud and abuse; (3) Agree to audits anytime of coupon box sales by the govt. or an independent contractor at no charge; (4) Will provide NTIA electronically with coupon redemption data matching each serialized coupon with sale of an eligible box; (5) Will follow NTIA rules for accepting coupons and getting reimbursement payments. Last Fri. was the first day retailers could begin submitting applications to NTIA.
An FCC analog-only labeling order (CED April 26 p1) covers products sold on the Internet and through direct-mail catalogs, but consumer alerts aren’t required on promotional circulars or newspaper ads where a consumer can’t “effect a sale,” the CE Retailers Coalition (CERC) said in a fact sheet on its website (www.ceretailers.org). Responding to our query, CERC said it came to that conclusion based on an inquiry to the FCC’s Media Bureau.
Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin’s “desperation rhetoric” won’t “obscure” his company’s “apparent preference for a cozy, government-sanctioned monopoly” after a XM-Sirius merger, “rather than having to continue competing with XM in the finite satellite radio marketplace,” NAB said Fri. A day earlier, Karmazin told the Lehman Bros. Worldwide Wireless Conference he thinks it’s “disgraceful” that NAB “is paying people” like former Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft to write to agencies condemning the merger (CED June 1 p7).
Lack of a DAB “statutory mandate” was among the “several reasons” the FCC decided not to impose a hard deadline for converting terrestrial radio stations to digital HD Radio, the Commission said in its DAB order finally released Thurs. after having been approved March 22 (CED March 23 p2).
June 1 (Fri.) was the first day retailers could begin applying to NTIA for DTV coupon program certification. Retailers have until March 2008 to apply. Most are expected to apply after Aug. 15, when NTIA is to pick a contractor to run the program. NTIA will publish consumer information early in 2008, including lists of certified retailers and coupon-eligible converter boxes (CECBs) by make and model, a spokesman said. The law requires NTIA to begin taking consumer coupon requests Jan. 1, 2008. NTIA won’t publish names of CE makers submitting CECB production samples and test data, the spokesman said.