DTV ‘Quiet Period’ Supported by Owners of Over 500 Stations
Hundreds of TV stations agreed not to withhold signals from pay-TV companies in the weeks before and after they cut off analog broadcasts, to avoid confusing viewers about the digital transition. The NAB said Tuesday that 25 companies represented on its TV board had voted for a so-called DTV quiet period Feb. 4 to March 4. The plan got a good reception from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, said NAB Joint Board Chairman Jack Sander, who spoke Monday with Martin. The proposal is gaining support from more companies and affiliate groups, NAB officials said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
But the period proposed is briefer than specified in a draft order that Martin has circulated (CD Aug 8 p6). The plan is a good start, said American Cable Association President Matt Polka. He doubts that the NAB quiet period is long enough to keep viewers from mistakenly thinking they lack equipment to receive a DTV channel if their cable operator and the broadcaster can’t agree on a contract. “When a station is dropped, the consumer believes it’s somehow their fault they are not receiving the signal, causing them to buy new boxes” or TV sets or take other action, he said. The NCTA also called the period too brief. A broadcast executive said he doesn’t support any quiet period at all.
The NAB TV committee voted unanimously Aug. 6, without abstention, for the proposal, after weeks of discussion, said Sander. Supporters own or run more than 500 stations, said an NAB spokesman. They include ABC, Cox, Gannett, Hearst- Argyle, Media General, Meredith, NBC, Scripps and Tribune. The ABC, CBS and NBC affiliate groups voted unanimously for the plan, Sander said. “We expect far more groups to sign on.”
The NAB made its proposal after meeting Monday with Martin, who seemed receptive, though under his draft order the quiet period would start Jan. 15, Sander said. Another FCC member suggested it begin Dec. 15, which other commissioners are considering, said agency and industry officials. Martin said his date isn’t set in stone, according to Sander. “He seemed to be pleased and satisfied from this,” Sander said. “He didn’t push back at all on ‘Why your date and not my date.’ We wouldn’t have gone forward with this if he had” disagreed. Sander said Martin compared the NAB plan to another by the group in which stations promised to air public service announcements on DTV, a proposal worked into an FCC consumer education order (CD Feb 21 p5).
Martin hasn’t decided what to do about the NAB proposal, an FCC spokeswoman said. “The chairman has said that he’s open to options,” she said, declining to comment on Martin’s meeting with Sander. “He has said it’s important that there’s some quiet period,” she said. NAB officials have told other FCC members or their aides of the plan, said a spokesman for the group. It sent a letter on the quiet period Monday night to “key offices on Capitol Hill,” he said.
Gray TV President Bob Prather opposes a quiet period, he said. “I don’t see the need,” he said in an interview. “We're negotiating in good faith to get retransmission money from these people, and it doesn’t matter if it’s analog or digital,” he said of cable operators. Retransmission-consent contracts for cable systems covering most pay-TV viewers in Gray’s markets expire Dec. 31, Prather said. Sander sees Prather’s point, he said. “In a perfect world, we would agree with that,” Sander said: “But it was clear that the commission was concerned about it, the Hill was concerned about it and numerous broadcasters were concerned.” Some NAB TV board members initially opposed a quiet period, Sander said. But “more and more people swung over” to support one, he added.
Because many carriage contracts expire at year-end, NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow said, the quiet period should begin earlier. “Any voluntary quiet period that does not begin before the agreements actually expire -- or which is too brief to preclude potentially confusing messages about broadcast carriage during the time of the actual DTV transition -- represents the illusion of a commitment and does not serve the consumer,” he said. A longer period would interfere with business decisions and be irrelevant to the DTV transition, said Sander.
A Feb. 4 start “doesn’t really solve the problem,” since it doesn’t keep carriage disputes from interfering with the transition for a “reasonable” amount of time before and after the analog cutoff, Polka said. The Dec. 15 start proposed by a commissioner makes more sense, he said. The commission has authority to impose a quiet period, including under section 336 of the Communications Act, Polka said. But a broadcast lawyer said the FCC may lack the power, because the 1992 Cable Act allows stations to charge cable operators for the rights to distribute their broadcasts.