nukevor
07-02-2004, 04:18 PM
Get ready to pay more for a TV, thanks to FCC mandate
By Mike Langberg
Mercury News
July 2, 2004
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/9063493.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
We're about to start paying a hidden tax of $350 on new TV sets, thanks to Washington insider politics that has become bad public policy.
As of July 1, television manufacturers have to add costly digital tuners to some TVs for receiving over-the-air broadcasts of high-definition television, under a mandate from the Federal Communications Commission.
Between now and July 1, 2005, half of all TV sets shipped with screens 36 inches or larger must have a digital tuner. The mandate ratchets up next year to half of sets 25 inches or larger. On July 1, 2006, the mandate expands to all sets in the 25-inch or larger category.
The final blow falls July 1, 2007, when every device containing a standard TV tuner -- including tiny 9-inch sets and even videocassette recorders -- also must have a digital tuner.
It's part of the long and badly managed transition from old-fashioned analog TV -- the signals broadcast in VHF and UHF -- to high-definition digital. All standard and high-definition TV sets sold today have analog tuners, and most HD-ready sets must add an external tuner or high-definition cable or satellite box to receive the high-definition broadcasts through antennae.
For now, the cost of the digital-tuner mandate is hidden because prices for big-screen high-definition TV sets are dropping rapidly. This year's models won't come down as fast to cover the expense of adding digital tuners, but will still be somewhat cheaper than last year's.
What's more, the cost of adding a digital tuner is certain to fall in the following years.
But it's far from certain the cost will decline fast enough to keep consumers from taking a huge hit in the wallet, especially when buying smaller sets in future years.
I'm angry about this, and I know who to blame: the owners of local TV stations, represented in Washington by the powerful National Association of Broadcasters.
The NAB lobbied heavily for the tuner mandate and overcame opposition from the Consumer Electronics Association, which represents TV makers, and several consumer groups.
Our elected representatives in Congress could have challenged the FCC's move, but you can't expect politicians to stick to principles when they need support from local TV stations to run their re-election ads.
What really ticks me off is that millions and millions of these expensive digital tuners will never get used.
According to the research firm In-Stat/MDR in Scottsdale, Ariz., half of the 107 million television households in the United States don't use the tuner in their set at all -- they get service through a satellite or cable set-top box. Only 17 percent of households get TV signals over the air through an antenna, fewer in the geographically challenged San Francisco Bay Area. The remainder plug cable directly into their TVs.
Set-top boxes are gaining popularity because they provide access to advanced services including pay-per-view movies, electronic program guides, video-on-demand services and digital video recording on hard disks. Futuristic home entertainment networks, which will start arriving in the next year or two, will make it easy to move video programming around the house -- but only through set-top boxes.
So at least half of consumers, and maybe even a higher percentage going forward, will pay for technology they don't want or need. There's also a huge loophole. A video monitor -- defined as a screen without any tuner -- isn't covered. LCD computer screens with video inputs, for example, don't need to add digital tuners.
Bad government regulations often have unintended consequences. The unintended consequence here could be an increase in sales of tuner-less monitors, further reducing the number of households without set-top boxes -- exactly the opposite of what the NAB wants.
I called Dennis Wharton, chief spokesman for the NAB, and gave him the unenviable task of countering my outrage.
Wharton called the cost of digital tuners ``a red herring,'' exaggerated by the CEA. Maybe, but external tuners for receiving over-the-air HD broadcasts currently cost $300 or more.
He also noted that broadcasters were ordered by the FCC to transmit in HD, starting in 1998, and argued that manufacturers should no longer be allowed to sell TV sets that receive only the older analog signals.
``Selling a TV without a (digital) tuning device is like selling a car without an engine,'' Wharton said.
I beg to differ. The FCC mandate is more like saying every car sold must have a radio pre-installed, adding cost for buyers who either don't want a radio or want a fancier radio than what comes from the factory.
There is one small silver lining. In a separate series of negotiations, the CEA and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, representing the nation's cable operators, agreed to standards allowing new TV sets to connect directly to digital cable systems without the need for a set-top box.
Digital-Cable Ready, or DCR, sets have a slot for accepting an authorization card, and cable operators have pledged to make those cards available as of July 1. TVs with digital over-the-air tuners also will have these DCR slots.
But even this positive step is severely limited. You'll still need a set-top cable box for two-way services such as pay-per-view, video on demand and electronic program guides.
###
By Mike Langberg
Mercury News
July 2, 2004
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/9063493.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
We're about to start paying a hidden tax of $350 on new TV sets, thanks to Washington insider politics that has become bad public policy.
As of July 1, television manufacturers have to add costly digital tuners to some TVs for receiving over-the-air broadcasts of high-definition television, under a mandate from the Federal Communications Commission.
Between now and July 1, 2005, half of all TV sets shipped with screens 36 inches or larger must have a digital tuner. The mandate ratchets up next year to half of sets 25 inches or larger. On July 1, 2006, the mandate expands to all sets in the 25-inch or larger category.
The final blow falls July 1, 2007, when every device containing a standard TV tuner -- including tiny 9-inch sets and even videocassette recorders -- also must have a digital tuner.
It's part of the long and badly managed transition from old-fashioned analog TV -- the signals broadcast in VHF and UHF -- to high-definition digital. All standard and high-definition TV sets sold today have analog tuners, and most HD-ready sets must add an external tuner or high-definition cable or satellite box to receive the high-definition broadcasts through antennae.
For now, the cost of the digital-tuner mandate is hidden because prices for big-screen high-definition TV sets are dropping rapidly. This year's models won't come down as fast to cover the expense of adding digital tuners, but will still be somewhat cheaper than last year's.
What's more, the cost of adding a digital tuner is certain to fall in the following years.
But it's far from certain the cost will decline fast enough to keep consumers from taking a huge hit in the wallet, especially when buying smaller sets in future years.
I'm angry about this, and I know who to blame: the owners of local TV stations, represented in Washington by the powerful National Association of Broadcasters.
The NAB lobbied heavily for the tuner mandate and overcame opposition from the Consumer Electronics Association, which represents TV makers, and several consumer groups.
Our elected representatives in Congress could have challenged the FCC's move, but you can't expect politicians to stick to principles when they need support from local TV stations to run their re-election ads.
What really ticks me off is that millions and millions of these expensive digital tuners will never get used.
According to the research firm In-Stat/MDR in Scottsdale, Ariz., half of the 107 million television households in the United States don't use the tuner in their set at all -- they get service through a satellite or cable set-top box. Only 17 percent of households get TV signals over the air through an antenna, fewer in the geographically challenged San Francisco Bay Area. The remainder plug cable directly into their TVs.
Set-top boxes are gaining popularity because they provide access to advanced services including pay-per-view movies, electronic program guides, video-on-demand services and digital video recording on hard disks. Futuristic home entertainment networks, which will start arriving in the next year or two, will make it easy to move video programming around the house -- but only through set-top boxes.
So at least half of consumers, and maybe even a higher percentage going forward, will pay for technology they don't want or need. There's also a huge loophole. A video monitor -- defined as a screen without any tuner -- isn't covered. LCD computer screens with video inputs, for example, don't need to add digital tuners.
Bad government regulations often have unintended consequences. The unintended consequence here could be an increase in sales of tuner-less monitors, further reducing the number of households without set-top boxes -- exactly the opposite of what the NAB wants.
I called Dennis Wharton, chief spokesman for the NAB, and gave him the unenviable task of countering my outrage.
Wharton called the cost of digital tuners ``a red herring,'' exaggerated by the CEA. Maybe, but external tuners for receiving over-the-air HD broadcasts currently cost $300 or more.
He also noted that broadcasters were ordered by the FCC to transmit in HD, starting in 1998, and argued that manufacturers should no longer be allowed to sell TV sets that receive only the older analog signals.
``Selling a TV without a (digital) tuning device is like selling a car without an engine,'' Wharton said.
I beg to differ. The FCC mandate is more like saying every car sold must have a radio pre-installed, adding cost for buyers who either don't want a radio or want a fancier radio than what comes from the factory.
There is one small silver lining. In a separate series of negotiations, the CEA and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, representing the nation's cable operators, agreed to standards allowing new TV sets to connect directly to digital cable systems without the need for a set-top box.
Digital-Cable Ready, or DCR, sets have a slot for accepting an authorization card, and cable operators have pledged to make those cards available as of July 1. TVs with digital over-the-air tuners also will have these DCR slots.
But even this positive step is severely limited. You'll still need a set-top cable box for two-way services such as pay-per-view, video on demand and electronic program guides.
###