FCC's Powell Promises Fast Track on Digital TV Advancement

[Gregg Lengling]

Todd Shields

DECEMBER 19, 2002 -

Federal Communications Chairman Michael Powell said Thursday his agency would "expeditiously" consider whether to adopt industry-proposed standards that will let digital TVs work without set-top boxes in cable systems nationwide.

Powell reacted as cable operators and TV set makers formally unveiled their agreement for achieving such compatibility between TVs and cable, ability often known as "plug and play."

Industry and government officials said they hoped the agreement would spur the transition from analog to digital TV by making it easier for consumers to use digital equipment.

Digital TV users typically must buy a separate tuner or rent a set-top box from their cable company to receive digital programming -- and then not always be assured their equipment would work should they move to another community.

The agreement unveiled Thursday essentially creates a nationwide digital tuner for cable. It envisions a system in which consumers could buy a TV, plug it into their cable, and receive programming.

"'Plug and play' cable compatibility is a key piece of the digital puzzle," Powell said in his statement. "We will act expeditiously ... after other interested parties have had the opportunity to comment."

Executives left a press conference devoted to the agreement to visit Powell at the FCC. The executives said they need federal backing for their plan to work.

"Here are our agreements. Now please place them in regulations," said Robert A. Perry, a vice president with Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America Inc. "While these agreements are a wonderful thing, they mean nothing if they are not put in place."

Perry and other executives said the agreement strikes a balance between consumers' right to make copies of programming for home use, and movie- and program-makers' rights not to have their work pirated through unauthorized Internet retransmission. But they declined to say whether consumers using equipment produced under the proposed standard could make copies of movies and other programming not provided as part of free over-the-air broadcasts.

The deal announced Thursday concerns one-way services, or consumers passively receiving pictures and sound. More negotiations are needed to devise a national standard for premium services supported by two-way communications, such as pay-per-view, gaming or other potentially lucrative applications, officials said.

Speakers at the press conference included Mitsubishi's Perry; Robert Sachs, president and CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, a cable trade group; and Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, with a membership that includes TV set makers.