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slo-mo. Here's why.
Hint--try to plug one of the sets into cable
By David Everitt
Digital TV may be the great hope for the television industry, but its future is being stalled by the very folks who would seem to have the most to gain from it, and for what would seem the silliest reasons: the inability of the cable industry and the manufacturers to get their act together.
The problem, according to W. Kenneth Ferree, head of the Federal Communications Commission’s Cable Services Bureau, is that most consumers can’t even get the equipment to receive digital TV.
At the New England Cable Television Association convention last week, Ferree put the issue in very personal terms. He related an experience that he had going to Best Buy to purchase a digital set. He was ready to put his money down, but the salesman told him don’t bother. The set wouldn’t be able to accept cable TV.
For some time now, the cable industry and TV manufacturers have supposedly been working on the technical standard that will allow consumers to buy a digital set and be able immediately to plug in their cable line and receive digital cable TV.
But no standards have been forthcoming, and the question is, how long will we have to wait?
"The Cable Bureau is going to get back into this," Ferree said at the convention. "If the industries can’t come up with standards and rules, we are going to have to come up with standards and rules."
Most observers point to the cable industry for the holdup.
"Cable has been slow to roll out any digital service," says Jim Stroud, analyst for the Carmel Group. "The responsibility for the lack of cable-compatible digital sets clearly falls on the cable industry. I think that this has held up the digital rollout across the country."
The National Cable Television Association and the Consumer Electronics Association came to an agreement on some form of technical standards in early 2000 that would allow digital sets to tune in to cable.
According to NCTA spokesman David Beckwith, the technical problems have been solved. The cable industry expects to see the cable-compatible digital sets on the market in the fourth quarter of this year.
The CEA isn’t nearly so satisfied with the agreements thus far.
"I share Ferree’s frustration on this issue," says Michael Petricone, a spokesman for the CEA.
According to Petricone, standards have been set for cable-compatible sets, "but only a minimal baseline standard. We need a complete, fully functioning standard to provide full digital service. This was supposed to have been done by July 2000."
Given the way things have gone so far, you don’t have to be too cynical to think that the process could keep dragging on. The question is whether the FCC will really do something about it, as Ferree suggests it will.
"The FCC can do a number of things," says Petricone. "For one, it can ensure that the process is benchmarked so that it’s finished within a reasonable amount of time. The commission can set up clear deadlines for the completion of certain parts of the process, with consequences if the deadlines are not met."
Stroud suggests a similar solution, saying that the FCC can "set out a road map" for reaching the destination where consumers can buy a digital set and hook up their cable without hiring a personal electronics engineer.
But can we expect the Michael Powell FCC to do that?
"If I was a betting man," says Stroud, "I would say that the commission would probably not do anything like that. But it can at least highly encourage the cable industry to move toward true digital service."
It should be pointed out that there are obstacles standing in the way of digital transition other than the availability of the right kind of TV sets. The most basic problem is that all of the players in this technological drama–the networks, the producers, the cable operators, the manufacturers–are waiting for one of the others to move first.
More specifically, from a consumer electronics standpoint, there is the issue of making fully-functioning digital set-top boxes more available to the public.
People who aren’t ready to buy an expensive digital TV could instead buy one of these boxes and use it with an analog set.
In that way, they could get some of the advantages of digital TV, such as an improved picture and the ability to tune in to cable, yet not have to shell out a lot of bucks. But these boxes are not available yet at retail outlets.
The availability of both set-tops and cable-compatible digital TVs should make a significant difference in getting the digital movement on track.
"Since so many households don’t care about over-the-air broadcasts," says Josh Wise, analyst at Allied Business Intelligence, "the only way for a lot of people to see digital broadcasts of CBS or NBC would be through cable. So there has to be the proper tuning capability available to people."
July 26, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-David Everitt writes about television from Huntington, New York.
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