Copps Says Ignorance on Pass-Through Boxes May Hurt DTV
The fact that many digital converter boxes won’t pass through signals by low-power stations still broadcasting in analog after Feb. 17, 2009, shows how the government may mangle the DTV transition, FCC Commissioner Copps said. Last week, NTIA Acting Director Meredith Baker said that of 32 box models her agency certified as eligible for $40 coupons only three have pass-through capability (CD Jan 25 p6). Talking to reporters in his office Tuesday, Copps said consumers may not know that many boxes have only digital tuners. He encouraged the CE and cable industries to agree on standards for two-way plug and play devices.
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Copps doesn’t know how to address the analog pass- through gap other than by driving industry and government to fill it, he said: “For God’s sake, get in contact and get everybody together who now appreciates this problem and figure out a solution to it and figure out what you're going to tell consumers,” he said. “This is not a good time to be finding out about problems like this when a lot of those boxes have been built.”
It’s in CE retailers’ interest to tell consumers about analog pass-through when they shop for converter boxes, because the companies want to sell the products, said an NTIA spokesman. NTIA also is telling consumers about the function in its own educational efforts, he said: “We make that information available to people in numerous ways.”
The Community Broadcasters Association in December asked the FCC to declare that coupon-eligible converters lacking analog pass-through break agency rules and the All-Channel Receiver Act. The analog cut-off affects only about 20 percent of U.S. TV stations because the FCC has not set a date for low-power and Class A broadcasters to convert to digital, the group said. That many of the certified boxes have analog pass-through is proof that the market is working, CEA said last month, when only a relative handful of boxes overall had been certified (CD Dec 10 p8). NTIA-certified analog pass-through models are the Philco TB150HH9 and TB150HH9 and the EchoStar TR-40, said the agency spokesman. More boxes are undergoing certification and NTIA expects more will have analog pass-through, he said.
Consumer electronics manufacturers and the government will explain analog pass-through features of converter boxes to consumers, a CEA spokesman said Tuesday. “For the small number of consumers served by certain low-power broadcasters that refuse to migrate to digital television, manufacturers are already including an RF bypass feature in several coupon-eligible converter boxes” for viewing analog signals after the transition, he added. “To the extent that certain [low-power] TV stations choose to deny their viewers access to the benefits of DTV, the FCC should consider whether a firm date for low power stations to transition to digital television is appropriate.”
A good way to gauge consumer awareness of analog pass- through features and DTV in general would be a test switchover in a city volunteering for that role, Copps said. He has sought such a test before, but FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has said it may be too late and that no cities have come forward publicly to volunteer. “I understand it’s getting late to do that” but a test still could be done, Copps said. He hasn’t heard other commissioners endorse that idea, Copps said, but he plans to keep talking about it with Martin. Support for such tests may rise as the transition nears, Copps said. “You really have to force-feed or front- load the consumer education effort,” he said. “Hopefully there will be some volunteer [cities] that will step up to the plate.”
The commission should address minority media ownership, Copps said. He lamented delays in release of a rulemaking notice approved Dec. 18 and what he said may be a lack of widespread support for minority media ownership rules. “I am not wildly encouraged by the enthusiasm I am seeing, and I hope that perception of mine will turn out to be a misperception,” said Copps. But delay in release seems to be due mostly to “crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s,” he added. He'll be “pushing hard” in 2008 for straightforward steps the FCC can take when it reviews broadcast licenses for renewals, said Copps. “It will be a busy year on media, and that doesn’t even talk about what Congress and the outside world will do on media ownership,” he added, apparently referring to an order approved 3-2 Dec. 18 relaxing the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban.
Copps’s first impulse is not to approve the XM-Sirius merger if and when the commission tackles it, he said. “If I'm going to find this in the public interest it is a fairly steep climb for the applicants to demonstrate that,” he said. But Copps wants to see whether the Justice Department seeks to block the deal, he said. “We have to do it one step at a time,” he said. “The first thing to do is to find out where Justice comes down.”
Copps has slight faith in the CE and cable industries’ ability to figure out standards for plug and play devices, if only thanks to increased demand for the products, he said. Such standards should be written before the digital transition occurs, he added: “I hope something will pressure the parties to get together… We have been waiting for a resolution for a long, long time.”