Powell Meets with Hill Leaders on DTV
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 11/28/2001 1:51:00 PM
Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell attended a meeting on Capitol Hill Wednesday that brought together regulators, lawmakers and lobbyists for a two-hour meeting on fixing the transition to digital television.
The meeting, the second in recent months, was staged by House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) as part of his plan to compel the private sector to get moving on the issue before legislation becomes inevitable.
Also attending were Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.).
Lobbyists attending included Peggy Binzel, executive vice president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association; Edward Fritts, president of the National Association of Broadcasters; Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association; and Fritz Attaway, executive vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America.
'I'd say there were no ultimatums, but everyone left that room with a clear understanding that if the affected parties don't come up with a solution to this problem by early next year, then Congress will,' Tauzin spokesman Ken Johnson said.
The digital-TV transition has many parts, including cable carriage of broadcast digital-TV signals, installation of digital-TV tuners in new TV sets, copy protection of digital signals and compatibility between digital-cable systems and digital-TV tuners.
The FCC could address many of the issues, but Powell has said he prefers to see market forces drive a transition that no one should expect to see completed overnight.
'Clearly, chairman Powell's presence highlighted the importance of everyone working together to come up with a market-based solution,' Johnson said.
Hollywood studios are concerned about illegal copying of digital content and distribution to nonpaying viewers over the Internet.
Consumer-equipment vendors, however, want to protect traditional home recording rights, which boost the attractiveness of their products.
Johnson said the MPAA and the CEA are making progress on the copy-protection issue. Resolution of that issue, he added, would spur the transition because copious amounts of digital programming would encourage consumers to buy digital-TV sets.
'Clearly, from our perspective, the MPAA and the CEA are working closer to resolve the copyright issues,' Johnson said. 'If that can be accomplished, then many of the other problems will fall to the wayside.'
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