This is the script of my national network radio tech segment
yesterday, on the topic of pressure being exerted on the FCC to
rapidly force a transition to a new, incompatible over the air TV
system that will leave many viewers without TV service at all. As
always, there may have been minor wording variations from this script
as I presented this report live on air.
Any listeners among you probably were surprised when I spent the full
first two hours of the show being interviewed about a range of tech
topics, rather than just presenting my usual weekly short tech report.
This was a surprise to me also, since I was asked to do this literally
at the last minute due to a technical problem bringing on the guest
who had been scheduled for that two hour segment. While I've done such
long form interviews on the show numerous times before, it had been
some time since my most recent one, and this was a welcome (though
unexpected) opportunity to expound live in more detail about my topics
of interest.
- - -
Yeah, so we've spoken before about the push to significantly obsolete
most existing U.S. televisions with the move from over the air
broadcasting system ATRAC 1.0 to the new pay-tv friendly ATRAC 3.0
standard -- the so-called NextGen TV -- always a cutesy name, right?
And of course, 3.0 is completely incompatible with the 1.0 system that
almost everybody has in their current TVs. Now obviously while cable
and satellite and streaming are now majority ways people in this
country access TV programming, there are still millions and millions
of people who can't afford these or don't have access to them for
other reasons, like the giant ISPs just not wanting to adequately --
or at all -- serve their areas.
So LOTS of people depend on over the air TV for emergency news and all
other television programming. And basically, the NAB -- the National
Association of Broadcasters -- late last month, officially asked the
FCC to force a transition to 3.0 that will cut most of these people
off -- viewers who are often already disadvantaged when it comes to
tech access -- and leave them with no TV unless they buy expensive
converters or completely new televisions. And keep in mind that most
TVs sold now except mainly top of the line models don't even have 3.0
tuners, only 1.0 for the current system. The NAB also wants the FCC to
let TV stations cut off simulcasting of programming so that it's only
available in 3.0 not 1.0.
Now you may remember back when the U.S. made the transition from
analog to digital (ATRAC 1.0) TV, the federal government helped
subsidize converters to minimize the number of people being cut off
from over the air TV. Well, that's never going to happen this time.
And it's important to realize that there's been no public outpouring
of requests for a new, incompatible TV system. In fact, while there
are some technical reception improvements, what ATRAC 3.0 is really
all about is encryption and pay TV, scrambling over the air channels,
having ways to charge viewers to watch them or time shift them, and so
on. In other words, it's about the money.
Now, part of the reason ATRAC 3.0 adoption has been slow -- outside of
facts like there being so little public demand for it -- is that the
tech has been tangled up in ownership battles and other disputes. One
major TV manufacturer completely stopped putting 3.0 tuners in any of
their TVs due to this issue.
And there's already pushback to the NAB. The TV manufacturing industry
understandably objects to the NAB's new call for the FCC to force 3.0
down consumers' throats over just a few years, with the exact schedule
depending on where you happen to live.
This really does matter, because again, so many people can't afford
the alternatives to over the air TV (like cable or Internet
streaming), and local TV news can be a lifeline in emergencies.
So there's a lot of speculation about whether the administration's new
FCC chairman is going to push through the changes the NAB wants,
irrespective of how this could negatively impact consumers. On one
hand, he seems to be quite anti-regulation -- he reportedly opposes
consumer-friendly concepts like net neutrality and apparently is
willing to let the dominant ISPs do pretty much whatever they want. On
the other hand, forcing this kind of transition on the schedule the
NAB wants, or requiring TV manufacturers to include 3.0 tuners in all
sets -- which is another part of what the NAB is now calling for --
would seem by definition to be highly regulatory, the opposite of
letting the market decide what's best.
If he does decide to go along with the NAB, a lot of over the air TV
viewers are likely to be left out in the cold, making a bad situation
unfortunately even worse for them. And sad to say, this is very much
the kind of situation that we see happening with tech over and over
again these days, and this doesn't seem likely to change for the
better, anytime soon.
- - -
L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[email protected] (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Signal: By request on need to know basis
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
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