Flat-panel TV price erosion will “moderate” this year vs. 2006’s unprecedented declines, but Best Buy refuses to guess how much because it’s in no one’s interest to “speculate,” senior executives told analysts in a Wed. Q4 earnings call.
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.
Two companies want temporary waivers of the FCC’s DTV tuner mandate so they can continue to make bathroom mirrors with analog TVs built in. The mandate, which took effect March 1, requires that TV sets shipped through interstate commerce with analog tuners also have digital tuners.
The House Telecom Subcommittee will “insist” Best Buy and other CE retailers begin putting stickers on analog TVs and put signage at points of sale warning consumers that such sets won’t work after the Feb. 2009 analog cutoff, Subcommittee Chmn. Markey (D-Mass.) told Best Buy Senior Vp Mike Vitelli in tough questioning at a Wed. hearing on the DTV transition.
RIAA made “misrepresentations” to Congress when it told the House Telecom Subcommittee last summer it was close to a deal with broadcasters on audio flag protections for digital radio, NAB Exec. Vp Dennis Wharton told us in response to our Mon. report (CED March 26 p1).
“Continuing” industry negotiations on audio flag content protections for HD Radio were the reason the FCC deferred action on the issue in its terrestrial DAB order (CED March 23 p2), Brendan Murray, Policy Div. attorney in the Commission’s Media Bureau, told the Commission’s open meeting Thurs. Murray couldn’t be reached Fri. about whether jurisdictional issues also played a role in the deferral. The U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. rejected the Commission’s video broadcast flag rules on grounds that it lacked statutory authority to enact them.
DTV converter coupons can’t be used for boxes bundled with smart antennas, contrary to our earlier reading of NTIA’s rules (CED March 13 p1). Funai had asked NTIA to make such bundles eligible for coupon use, estimating they could sell for less than $100 retail. But the rules say NTIA refused because the DTV statute defines coupon-eligible converter boxes (CECBs) as stand-alone devices: “The purchase of a smart antenna at the same time a consumer purchases a converter box equipped with a smart-antenna interface will ease the installation and operation of the converter box for many people. Manufacturers or retailers may wish to offer combined purchases of converter boxes with smart antenna interfaces and smart antennas at promotional prices. The CECB, however, must be presented for sale at all outlets as a standalone single unit and cannot be sold conditioned on the purchase of any other items.” NTIA sources said the rules mean coupons can’t be applied to DTV boxes shrink-wrapped with smart antennas.
Unresolved technical issues obstruct CableLabs approval of DTCP-IP as a digital output protection technology for one- way plug & play cable devices, MPAA said. MPAA was answering a DTLA petition at the FCC urging the Commission to reverse CableLabs’ “wrongful refusal” and order it to approve DTCP-IP (CED March 2 p8)). One problem is that many channels on cable’s digital “basic tier” aren’t scrambled at the cable operator’s headend, MPAA said: “This means that content carried on these channels would not be afforded any DTCP-IP protection when output over IP-based wired Ethernet or 802.11 wireless network connections… When unscrambled digital cable content is output in the clear over an IP-based output, it is exposed to mass, unauthorized redistribution and copying over the Internet.” To fix such lapses, MPAA, DTLA and CableLabs are working “to develop a means for providing protection to digital cable content carried on the digital basic tier in unscrambled form,” MPAA said. CableLabs, “in collaboration with DTLA,” also must define procedures for delivering and processing “system renewability messages” to promote the “long-term effectiveness of all digital output protection technologies,” MPAA said. Before the FCC rules on DTLA’s petition, it should allow “sufficient time” for MPAA, DTLA and CableLabs to “negotiate a workable solution” on DTCP-IP, MPAA urged.
Michael O'Hara, 46, a 24-year veteran of Thomson, died of cancer Thurs. in Indianapolis. He recently called supervising the 1994 launch of RCA’s DSS for DirecTV “the most fun I've had in years.”
It’s not necessarily true that DTV coupon redemptions won’t begin until Q2 2008, NTIA’s program dir. told a meeting Mon. at Commerce Dept. hq to clarify the agency’s final coupon rules (CED March 13 p1). “We do anticipate widespread redemptions in the first quarter,” Anita Wallgren told the meeting, contrary to misinterpretations that they won’t be possible. NTIA called the meeting to tell the public about the program rules, but few if any ordinary citizens attended the session. Most in the audience of several dozen were lobbyists and representatives of vendors that plan to bid for the contract.
That the partisan divide is as wide as ever over whether there’s enough money to supply DTV coupons to all who want them was evident at this week’s House Telecom Subcommittee hearing on the DTV transition (CED March 29 p1). But for now, Democrats who say NTIA’s coupon program is vastly underfunded seem content to maintain close oversight over the process as they monitor coupon requests, converter box availability and consumer outreach.