Audio Video News

The television broadcasting picture could change substantially if a bill drafted by US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Billy Tauzin (R-LA) becomes law. Among the bill's most drastic requirements is one forcing broadcasters to return their analog TV channels by 2006, for probable auction to wireless services. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is expected to campaign strongly against any such legislation. The Commerce Committee's ranking Democrat, John Dingell of Michigan, helped draft the bill.

Representative Tauzin's committee will hold a hearing September 25 to gather information for probable digital TV legislation to be introduced later this year. The committee will address all issues pertaining to digital television, including cable carriage of broadcast digital TV signals, interoperability between cable systems' hardware, copy protection, and mandated inclusion of digital TV tuners in sets, according to reports from Washington. During the early days of the digital television rollout, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that broadcasters would return their analog licenses by 2006 or whenever 85% of the US market could receive digital signals, whichever came first. The FCC has since back-pedalled on that ruling, implying that broadcasters might get to keep both their digital and analog bandwidth indefinitely.

Intended to force broadcasters to accelerate the DTV rollout, Tauzin's legislation would drop the 85% exemption and make them all surrender their analog channels by 2006 regardless of DTV's market penetration at the time. Some industry executives claim that the law would leave millions of Americans "without a TV signal." The proposed legislation is "un-American and an attack on consumers," one executive told Brooks Boliek of the Hollywood Reporter.

"It is intended to elicit discussion on what the Congress and the FCC can do to encourage a more orderly and timely successful transition to digital television," Tauzin said of the draft. "It focuses on the obstacles that have been identified as impediments to the transition and offers suggested solutions for solving the key problems that are central to the current logjam."

After hosting several inter-industry meetings to resolve outstanding DTV issues, Tauzin has decided it is "time for Congress to step in . . . . While we prefer marketplace solutions, clearly it is time for us to provide leadership in this area. By doing so, we hope to ensure that consumers benefit in a meaningful way from this exciting transition."

Regarding possible legislation over cable compatibility issues, National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) president Robert Sachs said he hopes "to achieve inter-industry solutions to as many of these issues as is possible." The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has long pointed to cable incompatibilities as one of the primary obstacles to the growth of DTV.

Entertainment industry officials were quiet about some aspects of the proposed legislation, but were happy over the inclusion of strong copy-protection language, especially the mention of "broadcast flag technology" that would prevent widespread copying of movies and other copyrighted works.

CEA president Gary Shapiro issued his own statement on the issue on September 18. Speaking at a symposium produced by the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) in San Francisco, Shapiro said, "We are at a critical juncture in history when the inevitable growth of technology is conflicting with the rising power and strength of copyright owners. How we resolve this tension between copyright and technology will define our future ability to communicate, create, and share information, education, and entertainment.

"The growth of reproduction, storage, and transmission technology has terrified copyright owners. The content community has gone on a scorched-earth campaign, attacking and burning several new recording and peer-to-peer technologies," Shapiro continued. "Copyright owners have used Congress, the media and courts to challenge the legality of technology and the morality and legality of recording. Despite cooperative efforts, the copyright community has declared war on technology."

The real solution to the copyright problem, Shapiro said, is "protecting content at the source, [so that] content providers can be assured their intellectual property rights are respected, while consumers can enjoy unimpeded personal use." The CEA hopes to avoid a "collision" between the hardware and software industries, he stated.