America begins the Digital Television Transition
Wilmington, North Carolina entered the digital age yesterday when it became the first television market in the US to pull the plug on analog broadcasting. In a ceremony yesterday at high noon, Mayor Bill Saffo and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin flipped a big cardboard switch signifying the end of the type of television broadcasting that has been in place since television broadcasting began 80 years ago.
Cable and satellite customers were not impacted by the switchover on televisions that are hooked up to them. However, in addition to non-customers, cable and satellite customers who have analog TV's in the household that are hooked up to an antenna need a digital converter to continue to work. According to the Wall Street Journal, over one hundred people called various broadcast stations and hot lines to find out what happened to their televisions when the switch was flipped.
Interestingly, the test dodged a major bullet this weekend when Hurricane Hannah lacked a major punch when it came ashore near Wilmington. Being very familiar with Wilmington (my former company owned the cable system there and I visited the area often) I wondered if it was a great idea to test such an important event during the height of hurricane season, right in the middle of hurricane alley. Luckily, mother nature just teased us about how much she could mess with us.
The rest of the nation will convert to digital broadcasting in February. The Wilmington test has shown that, even though the focus on this small television market was intense, some people still were surprised and confused. The intense focus that has been ongoing in Wilmington over the past couple of months will not be able to be duplicated throughout America in February. That should lead one to believe that there is much work still to be done.
This transition is of critical importance to the nation. Some of the analog frequencies have already been auctioned off, raising billions for the national treasury. More importantly, other frequencies will be turned over to emergency service providers throughout the nation after the tragic failure of critical communications on September 11 proved that we needed to act.
The FCC's Fall Offensive
Meanwhile, it has been reported that the FCC is considering its "fall offensive." According to Multichannel News, Chairman Martin is considering his agenda for the final days of the Bush Administration that will address:
- Wholesale a la carte: Require cable networks to allow distributors to purchase channels one at a time.
- Program access: Close terrestrial loopholes.
- Program carriage: Force Comcast to carry NFL Network.
- Pole-attachment fees: Make cable pay more, telcos less.
Meanwhile, Multichannel News also reports that the bipartisan leadership of the Senate committee that oversees the FCC sent a letter to the Chairman yesterday. Senators Daniel Inouye (D), Ted Stevens (R) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) asked Chairman Martin to focus on a successful digital transition and not on policy decisions that should, at this point, be left to the new administration's appointees to the FCC.
(The senators) told Martin that he had to subordinate his various wars with cable to
the more pressing effort to convert all full-power TV stations to
digital transmission.In their letter, the senators said the FCC’s focus on the TV transition was vital because not all stations were ready to shut off their analog transmitters and because “too many consumers” were totally unaware of the DTV transition or were uncertain about how many digital-to-analog converter boxes they would need.
“We find these facts troubling,” the senators concluded. “In order to ensure both broadcaster and consumer readiness, we suggest that in the months ahead you focus the FCC Media Bureau’s resources on managing the switch from analog to digital signals.”
I agree with the Senators. These are important issues but they certainly can be dealt with when a new administration is in the White House and the open commissioners seats are filled and new chairman is in place at the FCC. Full and open hearings should be held to determine the impact of government mandated a-la-carte.
Many people I know believe that Chairman Martin, for some unknown reason, dislikes the cable industry intensely and seeks to pass regulations primarily to hurt it. Frankly, some of his initiatives and actions could certainly lead one to that conclusion. Indeed, even the senators made reference to the Chairman's "wars with cable."
Let's Put the Interest of the Nation Ahead of Politics
So, at this critical moment in time, let's keep our eye on what's essential.
Is this the moment to focus on long-term policy initiatives? One item in the fall offensive would force a cable operator to carry a particular network, no matter how much it costs. Another would mandate that operators have to offer a service that they invested in and created for themselves to their competitors. That totally removes the motivation to dedicate the resources to develop new services.
Finally, we see the idea that cable companies should pay considerably more for their pole attachments (we rent space to place our cables on existing utility poles). How will those higher fees affect the cost of your cable? Isn't that totally contrary to the ideal of bringing broadband service to rural America?
These are policies that might make sense in a monopoly environment. However, they have no place where competition among phone, satellite and cable companies is so robust.
At this moment in time, our country needs the full focus and attention of the FCC to be on the digital television transition. It also deserves the ability to discuss these other major policy proposals without the pressure of a looming political deadline -- the election in November.
Let's see what the American people say in November. Then, let's give the new elected administration the ability to develop its high level view of communications policy for the future and put in place an FCC that will pursue those goals.
Comments