Movie Industry’s TV Control Waiver Won’t Get OK From Martin
A rumored FCC order to excuse the movie industry from some TV plug-and-play rules (CD Nov 28 p3) won’t come to fruition during Kevin Martin’s tenure as chairman, he said Tuesday. Some at the commission and in the consumer electronics and communications industries had expected a selectable output control waiver, with heavy conditions, to be granted by Martin, approving the May request by the Motion Picture Association of America. But in perhaps his last briefing with reporters to go over items for the next monthly public FCC meeting, Martin dashed those hopes.
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“I wasn’t ready to move forward with it in light of some of the concerns that were raised by the public interest groups,” Martin said. He met with officials from the MPAA and Public Knowledge, which along with the CEA had opposed the waiver on grounds that it would render some 20 million HDTV sets lacking digital inputs unable to receive movies on cable or satellite-TV before they go to DVD. Martin still wants to “take advantage of technologies that will allow consumers to watch first-run movies in their homes earlier,” he said. But Public Knowledge said changing the SOC rules could “undermine” FCC efforts to boost the retail market for pay-TV connection devices, Martin added.
CEA is “gratified” by the news, said a spokesman. The MPAA’s plan “would have caused massive inconvenience to lawfully acting television owners while doing nothing to hinder commercial pirates,” he added. Officials at the MPAA didn’t reply to messages seeking comment. A Public Knowledge spokesman, “pleased” with Martin’s comments, called them a “victory for consumers and innovation.” Whoever replaces Martin as chairman, the group hopes the MPAA’s waiver request either will be dismissed or not acted upon, he added.
Martin said commissioners may vote at the Jan. 15 meeting on a so-called nightlight order to let full-power stations broadcast educational programming about the DTV transition for 30 days after Feb. 17. A copy of a rulemaking notice on the plan, approved last week by commissioners (CD Dec 29 p7), likely will be published Wednesday in the Federal Register, Martin said. That will kick off a comment period, with initial responses due Jan. 5 and a Jan. 8 reply deadline, Martin said.
The FCC will spend about $7 million of the $20 million it got from Congress for DTV education to pay others to run call centers to handle viewer queries on the switch, Martin said. Combined, the FCC and outsourced call centers would be able to handle about 220,000 inquiries Feb. 18, he said. He’s counting on broadcasters and others to handle other calls, with the potential for 1 million calls the first day, Martin said. The FCC last week issued a request for proposals on the call centers, he said. Contracts for “grassroots” and other groups to conduct DTV outreach and perhaps run call centers of their own, though not necessarily linked to the FCC’s toll-free help number, may be awarded soon, Martin said. He declined to say how much the FCC might spend on those efforts.
Martin said he continues to have concerns about a notice on a so-called quiet period during which broadcasters couldn’t pull their signals from cable operators and other pay-TV companies in the runup to the DTV transition: “I am still concerned whether we have the authority to do it.” But another FCC official said Martin had initially supported an order for a short quiet period. All FCC members besides Martin have voted for the quiet period notice, the official said.