Zoran wants only a passive antenna or existing rooftop antenna with DTV converter boxes eligible for coupons, the company told NTIA. It’s among few commenters on the NTIA rulemaking to oppose a “smart” antenna interface on qualifying set-tops. Simple new “ATSC-optimized” passive antennas are available at less than $20 and can drop in price significantly with volume, Dave Pederson, Zoran vp-corporate mktg., told NTIA. NAB/MSTV has urged a smart antenna input on eligible boxes, as have CEA, LG, Thomson and others. Funai, among Wal-Mart’s largest CE suppliers, went the extra step of saying NTIA should not disqualify “bundling” a smart antenna with a DTV converter box to qualify it for a $40 coupon subsidy. But smart antennas today typically cost $300, Zoran said: “This is unacceptable for a converter box program where several teams are working hard to pull together a box solution to minimize the consumer’s investment in a converter box beyond the coupon.”
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.
No outcome looms in Thomson’s effort to sell its AV and accessories operations -- a transaction the company thought would be done by summer. Any deal will have to be negotiated and completed without full-time help from Michael O'Hara, who left Fri. as Thomson exec. vp to start his own venture capital and consulting firm, Summus.
There’s broad consensus that consumer outreach in the DTV converter box coupon program will be underfunded with a $5 million govt. allocation, but comments in NTIA’s rulemaking (CED Sept 26 p1, Sept 25 p1) showed opinions vary on how best to stretch the money.
Funai -- a leading CE supplier to Wal-Mart -- strongly believes that a DTV converter box fitted with a CEA-909 interface for a “smart” antenna should qualify for a $40 subsidy, the company said in comments in NTIA’s rulemaking on how the $1.5 billion coupon program should be run (CED Sept 26 p1). Funai’s backing of a smart antenna input on eligible boxes mirrored similar support expressed by many of the other 44 comments filed on deadline day, Mon.
Nothing in the “plain language” of the DTV legislation or its history calls for excluding cable or satellite households from qualifying for a DTV converter box coupon, CEA, MSTV and NAB said Mon. in rare joint comments in NTIA’s rulemaking on how the $1.5 billion program should be run. “For the same reasons, consumer eligibility should not be delimited by a means test,” said the groups.
NAB, frustrated that the FCC hasn’t acted on its July request to “seek recall” of noncompliant Sirius and XM receivers shipped to retail or sold through to consumers (CED Aug 1 p1), asked Sirius and XM directly Thurs. to pull or suspend service to those radios voluntarily. Sirius and XM hadn’t responded by our deadline to our requests for comment. But both seemed certain to reject the call, as they opposed NAB’s request to the Commission for a recall last month (CED Aug 2 p2).
Under “normal commercial conditions,” a coupon program of the “size and scope” estimated for NTIA’s DTV converter box $40 voucher giveaway would take 18 months to prepare, a would-be vendor said in a Request for Information (RFI) filing at the agency Sept. 15. NTIA’s proposed schedule for awarding contracts June 2007 and begin issuing coupons Jan. 2008 is “feasible” but will require “solutions that can be implemented quickly,” said the vendor, Archway Mktg. Services, of Rogers, Minn.
TiVo opposes Verizon’s CableCARD waiver request because granting it “would amount to an indefinite exemption from the integration ban, rather than a limited waiver,” the company told the FCC in reply comments. TiVo also urged the Commission to reject a separate Charter waiver request because its reach would go “far beyond” low-end, limited- function set-tops and thus “critically weaken the goal of the integration ban.”
Wal-Mart expects to be “one of the top sellers” of DTV converter boxes for the 2009 analog cutoff, the retailing giant told NTIA. As an “advocate” for economically hard- pressed consumers who can least afford rising energy costs, Wal-Mart urged NTIA to require “auto-power-down” defaults and other power-limit features as conditions for making boxes eligible for the $40 coupon subsidies.
DENVER -- Digeo, licensor of Moxi media center and PVR set-top box software to cable operators, will adapt its tools for HD digital cable set-tops sold at retail starting next year, Digeo told reporters at a CEDIA briefing here late Thurs.