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 CEA Pans FCC's Digital TV Tuner Order
by Broderick Perkins
With fewer than 13 percent of households relying upon over-the-air reception for TV signals, a digital broadcast tuner embedded in new televisions would be a costly imposition on consumers and the television manufacturing industry, according to a consumer electronics trade group. The Federal Trade Commission says its order FCC-02-230A1 to add the tuners to certain televisions is designed to help ensure enough households can receive digital programming in time for the December 31, 2006, target completion date for the transition from analog to digital television. The target date is mandated by the Communications Act of 1934's amendment, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 . The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said it plans to appeal what it considers an unnecessary regulation and is suggesting another technological approach to make sure sufficient households can access digital programming. "The FCC has just imposed a multi-billion dollar annual TV tax on American consumers," CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro said. "We don't need a digital broadcast tuner embedded in every new television in order to accelerate the DTV transition; we need digital cable equipment compatibility -- the option for consumers to buy a high-definition set, take it home, plug it into the cable jack in their wall and turn it on just like they do today in the analog world," Shapiro said. The FCC contends with mass production and television costs dropping from $100 to $800 a year, adding the tuners will impose only negligible if any additional cost to the price of a television . Here's how the FCC says the new standards will be phased in. The CEA says, among its members -- 1,000 electronic product corporations -- most digital television makers will by Dec. 31, 2003 or already offer for sale a separate set-top box to receive digital signals for those who want to receive over-the-air digital broadcasts. Also, within 18 months of the cable industry's implementation of a digital cable standard, CEA members who sell digital televisions with the necessary digital turners for the cable standard. The CEA says the cable industry will have a standard to meet legal deadlines and given the relatively few households that receive over-the-air signals, embedded over-the-air receivers will become obsolete technology that was rarely used to begin with. "We certainly respect the Commission's interest in shifting broadcasters rapidly to DTV," Shapiro said, but added, "We continue to ask the FCC to use its jurisdiction to make sure consumers can receive DTV and HDTV programming via cable as seamlessly and as quickly as possible." Published: September 18, 2002 Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
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A journalist for 35-years, Broderick Perkins parlayed an old-school daily newspaper career into a digital news service offering editorial content and consulting services. Perkins' San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group includes the flagship news site,