Digital TV Facts: The Latest

Dish Network customers are still smarting from the loss of distant network stations, judging from comments I’m seeing. The satellite TV service dropped out-of-market network channels on Dec. 1, complying with a deadline imposed by a federal court. By providing distant channels to ineligible households, Dish parent EchoStar repeatedly violated federal regulations, according to the courts.

EchoStar, faced with the possibility of losing several hundred thousand customers, has to be hurting right now. But why, Dish subscribers ask, should we be punished? I’ll simply note, once again, that satellite and cable TV carriage rules do a much better job protecting broadcasters than the viewing public.

Dish customers who want their distant channels back may now, if eligible, get a similar service through another satellite provider, AllAmericanDirect.com. EchoStar is providing satellite capacity for the channels through an agreement with National Programming Service (NPS), a C-Band satellite programmer. The package costs $2.50 per month per network, or $9.00 for the four major networks. Viewers would receive network feeds from San Francisco and Atlanta on channels 5731 to 5738 of the Dish Network receiver. (The National Association of Broadcasters, as might be expected, is fuming about the EchoStar-NPS arrangement.)

Rival direct-broadcast satellite service DirecTV is offering $150 rebates, along with free installation and equipment, to some Dish customers as an inducement to switch. DirecTV, along with the Fox network, is part of the News Corp. empire. Last week, EchoStar railed against a “Fox Network-led coalition of broadcasters” who, they charge, intend to “deny consumers their freedom of choice and leave the Fox-owned DirecTV as a monopoly for distant networks.”

Earlier:
• Dish Network loses distant stations on Dec. 1
• Dish Network must drop distant network stations, court says

• Links: NPS, AllAmericanDirect.com, Dish, El Paso Times

Dish Network subscribers will lose access to distant broadcast channels on Dec. 1. The satellite TV company’s parent, EchoStar Communications, lost a last-minute appeal in federal court this week, sending an estimated 800,000 Dish customers scrambling to replace the distant network channels.

Kathy, a concerned reader, writes:

I asked Dish about getting a closer ABC channel. I get L.A. now, and they have one out of San Francisco. Dish said that no satellite company will be able to give us ABC.

Is this true? Or is it just Dish?

First, some background for other readers: Most direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) customers can order broadcast channels from their local TV market via satellite. Dish subscribers who receive local channels will continue to receive them.

Some satellite subscribers live in areas not served by a local station—places, typically rural, where broadcast reception is poor or nonexistent. Federal law makes provision for those customers to receive channels from distant cities. So, Kathy, if you happen to live in one of those unserved areas, you might be able to get help from Dish’s rival, DirecTV. (Before canceling Dish, I would call DirecTV to make sure.)

If, however, you live in an area where you could receive a local ABC station with an antenna, then DirecTV probably cannot provide a distant ABC channel, either. The courts found that Dish Network was delivering distant-network signals to households that weren’t eligible to receive them. (Naughty, naughty!) As of Dec. 1, Dish will be barred from providing distant channels, even to customers who would have been eligible. “In the limited areas where local channels are not available by satellite,” according to the Dish web site, “we intend to protect our customers by providing free off-air antennas and other alternatives.”

A Senate bill that would block the court ruling was introduced last week, but its prospects are unknown, and senators won’t return from their Thanksgiving break until Dec. 5.

Earlier:
• Dish Network must drop distant network stations, court says

• Links: Multichannel News, Rocky Mountain News, Dish

House Democrats voiced reservations about the Bush administration’s converter box subsidy proposal yesterday. They have now even suggested that problems with the federal coupon program, if not remedied, could delay 2009’s “hard deadline” for the cutoff of analog TV broadcasts.

John Dingell (D-Mich.), incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, and other committee Democrats raised concerns in a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration:

“We continue to believe this plan is highly flawed and disadvantages the poor, the elderly, minority groups, and those with multiple analog television sets in their home….”

The NTIA is the Commerce Department agency overseeing the converter box coupon program.

If Congress truly wants changes to the much-criticized, $1.5 billion subsidy program, it must be prepared to increase its funding.

• Link: TV Week

Broadcasting and consumer-electronics industry representatives, once again presenting a united front, have called on the federal government to include cable and satellite TV subscribers in its converter-box subsidy program. The program will provide $40 coupons to U.S. households to ease the transition to digital TV. The digital-to-analog converter boxes (also known as digital TV adapters) will allow continued use of conventional analog TVs after analog broadcasts cease in 2009.

The industry groups object to a proposal from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a Commerce Department agency, which would limit coupon eligibility to broadcast-only households. Many cable and satellite customers will not need additional equipment to continue receiving local channels. But under the government scenario, cable or satellite subscribers would not get converter-box subsidies, even for spare TVs not connected to those systems.

The industry lobbies also called on the NTIA to make coupons available to requesting households regardless of their income. Other recommendations include:

Allowing subsidized boxes to include certain features, including electronic program guides and “smart antenna” interfaces. While I agree, and strongly, it’s not clear to me that the Digital TV Act of 2005—which specifically limits the coupon program to stripped-down converter-boxes—would permit inclusion of these essential features. But if the NTIA wants to allow it, they probably can.

Setting minimum performance requirements for converter boxes. The industries’ recommendations would exceed the ATSC A/74 “recommended practice on receiver performance” guidelines. Given the over-the-air reception issues already experienced by many U.S. digital TV viewers, the NTIA seriously needs to do everything it can to help consumers get converter boxes with robust reception capabilities. Low-grade converter boxes would further undermine the viability of broadcast television in the United States.

Rejecting stringent state-level energy-efficiency requirements for converter boxes. Broadcasters and electronics firms have sought to preempt a strict but achievable California energy standard that would lead to substantial savings for power customers in that state. Instead of such mandatory state requirements, the lobbyists suggest that the NTIA “be prepared to review and, as appropriate, adopt” energy guidelines under the EPA’s Energy Star program. The Energy Star guidelines for converter boxes would be voluntary—if the EPA ever bothers to adopt them.

The recommendations were issued by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV) and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) on Monday. That was the deadline for comments to be submitted to the NTIA as part of its rulemaking process for the converter-box coupon program.

• Links: press release, industry comments [pdf]

A technology columnist sounds the death knell for digital TV broadcasts:

And despite protests to the contrary, digital television—whether you care to purchase a high-definition set or not—will be an exclusive club for cable and satellite subscribers only. Over-the-air digital broadcasts simply don’t work. Not if we hold digital TV to the same expectations as flimsy analog signals.

Blame the persnickety nature of digital.

…Here in my office, only two of the five national networks (including PBS) come in reliably, and I’m just 30 miles away from a major city.

It is a bit of a rant. (By the way, the shutoff date for analog broadcasts is Feb. 18, 2009, and not “possibly 15 months from now,” as the Sun-Times has it). But the man’s complaint deserves to be heard: For some viewers, the end of analog TV will be, in effect, the end of free TV.

Since the author didn’t complain about having to install a rooftop antenna, I’ll bet he didn’t try. Really, though, if you didn’t have one in the ’60s, would you want one now? Not that anyone ever asked.

Earlier:
• As digital TV reception controversy dims, E-VSB gets another look
• Antenna aimed at digital-TV multipath reception problems
• Will digital TV reception problems doom broadcast TV?

• Link: Chicago Sun-Times

Analog TV broadcasts will disappear on Feb. 17, 2009, and I know that some people think I’m a picture-tube-is-half-empty kind of guy for always warning about potential transition problems.

But Mark Cuban (in the conclusion of a two-part interview with his exuberance Phillip Swann) isn’t worried:

TV Predictions: Will the 2009 digital TV transition in the United States go smoothly? Or, will it be the technological equivalent of Katrina?…

Mark Cuban: Yes, it will go smoothly, but not according to the press. The media will be littered with stories of little old ladies that can’t get their favorite church sermons on Sunday morning, or 100 year old men who have been watching their favorite team since the NFL was founded and now they don’t know how to do it. That’s what the media does.

However, that won’t be the meat and potatoes of what is going on. Why? Because there is going to be the biggest price and marketing war we have ever seen in this industry starting next Christmas. There are 15 million or more households and untold number of people who won’t have a clue about what the changeover means to them. Knowing this, cable and satellite will go to war trying to lure those ‘analogniks’ to their side of the fence. TV manufacturers will be pricing their LCD and HDTVs to try to generate replacement sales…

When change happens in America, media hype comes standard—on that point I will agree.

But here’s one thing I know: Those little old ladies are real. Now, some will read the manuals and connect the plugs and move confidently into the digital age. Others, I’m afraid, will be completely lost. And some of them really don’t want cable.

If we prepare now, though, and if the geeks among us pledge to help our neighbors (of any age, and either sex) who suffer from the high-tech willies, America will survive this, probably.

Earlier:
• Blu-ray or HD-DVD? For Mark Cuban, it’s no dilemma.
• Elderly, others may need help to get digital TV
• Digital TV transition costs will hit consumers, subsidies or not

• Link: TV Predictions

Dallas Mavericks-owning, HDNet-founding billionaire Mark Cuban offers a homebrew solution to the high-definition DVD format wars:

“I would buy a $399 PC and connect it to my HDTV and buy and play all the Windows Media HD Content out there. And then I would buy a DVR from my provider and hack it to add a terabyte drive and record everything and anything. But that’s me.

“If I had a beautiful home theater that I used to impress my friends, I would buy HD-DVD today and wait till the dual-use boxes came out to upgrade to them.”

• Link: TV Predictions

TiVo will provide software that works with DVR set-top boxes supplied by Cox cable systems:

Under the agreement, similar to one Comcast reached with TiVo last year, TiVo will customize its software so it can be downloaded by Cox subscribers without having to replace their existing DVRs or schedule a technician’s visit….

Signing such licensing deals with cable operators was widely predicted by analysts in the wake of a favorable outcome for TiVo in a patent suit against EchoStar.

Three million DVR-equipped subscribers to EchoStar’s Dish Network are still recording, for now, after a court temporarily delayed an injunction against the devices earlier this month. Those worries haven’t deterred EchoStar, which now has a deal with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group to feed video on demand (VOD) and pay-per-view (PPV) programming to Dish DVR boxes. Can we expect that EchoStar, too, will finally reach an agreement with TiVo?

• Link: Broadcasting & Cable

Dish Network customers who subscribe to a “distant networks” package may be in imminent danger of losing access to out-of-town network affiliates, in the latest chapter of a long-running copyright battle. Dish parent EchoStar Communications has run out of legal options, as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas let stand the May ruling ordering the direct-broadcast satellite company to stop distant-network transmissions. Hundreds of thousands of Dish customers get feeds of distant stations (typically from New York or Los Angeles), which are supposed to be available only to subscribers who live outside the viewing area of a local network affiliate. The lower court ruling found that EchoStar failed to comply with those restrictions.

Dish Network subscribers who receive only local network affiliates via satellite are not affected by the ruling.

• Links: Washington Post, Boston Globe

Another item from National Journal’s Insider Update, this one about the digital tuner mandate, caught my eye (I’m still catching up on reading, and posting, after a vacation):

A survey of two leading electronics retailers this week found 72 percent of the sets for sale at Best Buy included digital tuners, while 83 percent at Circuit City did.

That’s misleading, I fear. All television receivers 25 inches or larger are to include tuners for digital broadcasts as of March 1, 2006, under an FCC order (rules for smaller sets are still being phased in). What the article neglects to say is that the FCC rule applies only to actual TV receivers, i.e., televisions capable of tuning in over-the-air broadcasts. Many TVs today, especially megascreen home theater models, are monitors, not receivers—they have no analog or digital tuner. A monitor (which sometimes carries the “HD-Ready” label) can be a good choice for cable or satellite viewers who have no intention of ever watching TV with an antenna. Otherwise, the consumer must take into account the cost of purchasing a separate receiver.

That said, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that not all 25-inch-plus receivers on store shelves contain digital tuners.

Related:
• Will my current TV still work after the switch from analog to digital?

• Link: National Journal

Households that receive all of their TV programming over the air would be eligible for government coupons that will reduce the cost of set-top converter boxes, under a proposal from a federal agency. The converter boxes (sometimes called digital TV adapters) will enable existing analog TVs to continue receiving broadcasts after the digital TV transition is completed in 2009. Eligible households could request two $40 coupons.

Cable and satellite subscribers would be ineligible for subsidies, even if some televisions in the household are not connected to a pay-TV service, according to the plan.

This scenario won’t make everyone happy—and given that Congress apparently underfunded the subsidy program, some folks are bound to be unhappy. Would it surprise you to know that broadcasters are less than completely happy?

“…we would hope that no broadcast-only TV sets are forced to go dark during this transition,” said [National Association of Broadcasters] spokesman Dennis Wharton.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a Commerce Department agency, seeks public comment on whether a means test or other criteria should be used in determining eligibility. The NTIA also invites comments on other aspects of its proposal.

• Links: USA Today, NTIA

DirecTV subscribers in nine more markets can now receive local digital TV channels, including HD programming, via satellite. These stations became available yesterday:

Baltimore—WMAR (ABC), WJZ (CBS), WBFF (Fox), WBAL (NBC).

Cleveland—WEWS (ABC), WJW (Fox), WKYC (NBC).

Miami—WPLG (ABC), WFOR (CBS), WSVN (Fox), WTVJ (NBC).

Denver—KMGH (ABC), KCNC (CBS), KDVR (Fox), KUSA (NBC).

Charlotte—WSOC (ABC), WCCB (Fox), WCNC (NBC).

Orlando—WFTV (ABC), WKMG (CBS), WOFL (Fox), WESH (NBC).

Raleigh-Durham, N.C.—WTVD (ABC), WNCN (NBC).

Hartford, Conn.—WFSB (CBS), WVIT (NBC).

West Palm Beach, Fla.—WPBF (ABC), WPTV (NBC).

If your favorite station is missing, don’t despair: DirecTV is in negotiations with several other stations for permission to carry their signals. The direct-broadcast satellite service now offers local digital channels in 36 cities and plans to add 13 more by year’s end.

To watch HD channels (which are included with subscriptions that include standard local channels), DirecTV customers will need the new H20 HD receiver and satellite dish.