INDUSTRIES STRUGGLING FOR CONTROL IN DTV WORLD, NAB IS TOLD
LAS VEGAS -- If there was one thing that was made perfectly clear at the MSTV conference during the NAB convention here Mon., it’s that broadcasters are no friends of consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers and cable operators, any agreements between the respective industries not withstanding. The broadcasters invited several representatives of those industries to the conference, but let them know in no uncertain terms that they were in enemy territory on DTV tuners and must-carry.
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Robert Perry, Mitsubishi vp-mktg. and a lead negotiator in the recent agreement of CE manufacturers and cable on DTV tuners, told the broadcasters in a keynote address that the agreement was between hostile parties and that the 2 sides had been working on cable-compatible TV sets for 15 years but didn’t move until the threat of govt. intervention made them into unusual bedfellows. “It’s not a healthy relationship,” he said, adding that the problem was a question of cable operators’ wanting a threatening amount of “control” over TV interfaces and content. “It’s not a perfect agreement, but after 15 years, it’s an agreement,” he said.
Perry also said he believed CE manufacturers and broadcasters should “be joined at the hip” on most issues on the DTV transition, but chided broadcasters for wanting minimum DTV tuner standards when equipment makers believed broadcasters’ use of lower power was what caused receiver problems. He also said broadcasters should be doing more to promote HDTV, specifically by airing promotions on their analog channels now. The way for broadcasters to win the must-carry battle with cable, Perry said, is for them to tell viewers to call their cable company to complain. He said govt. involvement wasn’t the answer on most questions because “our friends in Washington… are not interested in our business models.”
Asked why the CE-cable agreement didn’t include any provision for over-the-air tuners, Perry said the question didn’t enter the negotiations because, he believed, no manufacturer would be crazy enough to build a TV set only for cable, but without the capability of receiving over-the-air or satellite TV. The idea that any manufacturer would do so, he said, was “absurd” and “an insane business model.” But broadcasters disagreed and continued to press him on why he wouldn’t support such a provision if the FCC put one in the agreement, which the agency was reviewing and could adopt. Perry said that mandate would be unnecessary: “I don’t think it met anyone’s logic test… It never even entered the imagination.” He also said that he feared that if there were any changes in the agreement, cable would back out of the deal.
FCC Media Bureau Chief Kenneth Ferree, who was on a panel immediately following Perry’s talk, mostly tried to stay out of the fray. On the question of power levels, he said broadcasters eventually would have to come up to full power, but he also said the agency remained sensitive to the financial burden that placed on small broadcasters. He said he expected the agency would address the power issue “very soon.” Gregory Schmidt, vp-new development and gen. counsel, LIN TV, said the power issue came up mostly in smaller markets where broadcasters would have to double their power expenses to reach perhaps 10% of their audience. That money might be better spent on upgrading plant, he said.
CEA Vp-Technology Michael Petricone said manufacturers were dismayed that broadcasters would insist on govt.- mandated DTV tuner standards to make them more sensitive when most broadcasters were transmitting in low power. “Millions of viewers are being disenfranchised,” he said. Those comments weren’t welcomed, as one audience member insisted: “That’s not true!”
NCTA Deputy Gen. Counsel Diane Burstein also met with some unfriendly questioning when asked why so few cable systems were carrying broadcasters’ digital signals. She said there had been remarkable progress in recent months and there should be more ahead. Asked by MSTV Pres. David Donovan why cable was insisting it was a capacity issue, Burstein admitted “it’s not all necessarily capacity- related,” but said cable operators also were concerned about their customers’ “getting a good viewing experience.” Ferree said he had “no idea” how the issue would be resolved or its timing.
Obviously pleasing the broadcasters, Burstein said nothing in the CE-cable agreement “would preclude” the addition of DTV over-the-air tuners. Ferree then stepped in: “Cable is not going to walk from the agreement.” Petricone said it would be in manufacturers’ best interest to sell consumers TV sets that had over-the-air and cable capabilities because otherwise consumers would return the sets. Schmidt pointed out that many consumers had 2nd and 3rd sets in their homes that weren’t hooked up to cable or satellite, and Donovan said that without over-the-air capabilities, consumers in the digital world could lose access to emergency alerts.