DBS Pushes Plug-and-Play Issues at FCC

[Gregg Lengling]

This week, DirecTV and EchoStar sent a letter to FCC Chairman Michael Powell outlining their concerns with the proposed plug-and-play agreement struck between cable and consumer electronics companies, an initiative that aims to make CE products compatible with cable systems.

Satellite TV interests have for months complained to the FCC that they were not part of the process in determining the plug-and-play standards, which could have an impact on the consumer products used by satellite TV customers. In their letter, DirecTV Chairman and CEO Eddy Hartenstein and EchoStar Chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen said the satellite TV industry "has been frozen out of the plug-and-play rulemaking process."

They added, "Despite our interest in doing so, we were not permitted to participate in the inter-industry negotiations held at your request. Our positions in this proceeding have been made a part of the record but apparently not a part of your deliberations. We believe that this calls into question the very validity of the notice-and-comment process" at the FCC.

The executives listed a number of issues with the current plug-and-play proposal, including getting DBS operators into the inter-industry discussions. They also asked that all digital content distribution methods, including the Internet and digital recorded media such as DVDs, should comply with encoding rules and output control regulations that are part of the plug-and-play initiative. They also asked that digital video recorder functionality be part of the proposal.

"We remain hopeful that in crafting its final order in this proceeding, the commission will take into account the 20 million DBS subscribers and the countless cable subscribers who benefit from the competition our companies provide. To date, that has not been the case," the letter said. "Given the great strides DBS has made in bringing HDTV to American consumers, the wholesale adoption of the cable/CE draft rules without bona fide consideration of our concerns would be counter-productive for consumers and unfair to our industry."