Skirmish in Desert Over DTV

BY ALICIA MUNDY

There comes a point in every protracted war when the parties sense they are finally playing out the endgame. As that stage was being reached in Iraq, it was also being sensed, with apprehension on all sides, at the National Association of Broadcasters' annual convention in Las Vegas, where ownership and digital transition matters were crawling to their conclusion.

With the stakes high, the outcomes uncertain and tempers flaring, it was inevitable there would be friendly-fire victims.

The first missile was launched by the NAB's own invitee, Barry Diller, late of Fox, Paramount, Vivendi, etc. By the time he'd finished a very pointed keynote address, he'd strafed everyone. First, he struck out at broadcasters, saying their previous ?sense of public responsibility?simply doesn't exist for these vertically integrated giant media conglomerates.

?We need more regulation, not less,? he said, setting off several pacemaker alarms in the crowd. Then he tossed out another grenade: ?Tight program ownership and financial interest rules for the already completely concentrated cable and satellite business is mandatory.?

A lobbyist for a station group said, ?Well, that was interesting.?

With the Powell Plan for the DTV transition exactly one year old, cable carriage was the subtext and background noise for much of the convention. In his opening remarks, NAB president Eddie Fritts said, ?Here the cable industry is missing at its post and AWOL?At last count only 107 of the 809 broadcast DTV stations were receiving cable carriage.?

That 107 figure is too low, said Diane Burstein, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association's deputy general counsel. It's closer to 120, she said. Burstein was part of an MSTV-hosted panel that included consumer manufacturers, broadcasters and the FCC's media bureau chief Ken Ferree.

Talking about signal degradation and what cable customers will actually see in the way of digital and HDTV pictures, Greg Schmidt of Lin Television said he had seen a change in attitude by the cable industry toward broadcast carriage: ?They see HDTV as a tool to fight satellite,? he explained.

Schmidt's comments were echoed by many broadcasters, manufacturers, Wall Street analysts and regulators during the conference. But when Burstein was asked if cable customers will see a full HDTV picture, she smoothly said, ?We question whether all the bits need to be carried for customers to have a good viewing experience.?

?I told you so,? said a lobbyist for CBS, which is pushing hi-def. ?Cable wants to get out of sending through the full digital signal.?

Not true, said an NCTA spokesman afterward; carrying the full signal is different from passing through all the bits.

However, an FCC staffer said the real issue is whether cable sends through a broadcasters' HDTV picture that matches other cable HDTV offerings such as HBO, which is the current FCC guideline. ?This is going to be as much as a fight as the ownership issues,? the staffer confided.

In fact, earlier, the FCC chairman's chief of staff Marcia MacBride said that it would help if Capitol Hill made some decisions on cable carriage.

Asked for its timetable, Ferree said, ?I have no idea. Carriage issues will come after ownership. After the cable caps. After plug-and-play.? Or, as another FCC staffer explained, after the MSOs have made all their retransmission agreements with broadcasters so that the FCC doesn't have to make the ruling itself.

Ferree got the final word, summing up the telcom rules: ?On a macro level, broadcasters want to ride on cable's pipe, cable guys want access to the utility companies' poles ? everybody wants something that belongs to somebody else.?