Technology360

A moving experience

A week ago tonight I was in a Spokane, Washington hotel awaiting a morning one-way flight to Washington, DC.  It had been exhausting and emotional week-plus organizing the move of my household goods and that day marked the last one I would spend in the house on a northern Idaho mountain ridge where I'd lived with my family for the past 21 years.  My two youngest children are now grown and gone and my wife and her parents, who'd lived there with us, are deceased, so I was planning to sell the place even before this new job came up rather quickly at the end of February.  What I'd thought might be a two or three month process turned into a two or three week process -- absolutely insane.

But my last day there also had some magic moments.  When the atmosphere is absolutely pristine, I can see to the southeast some mountains on the other side of Elk City, Idaho, about 110-120 miles away.  I've seen them only 3-4 times in the 21 years I lived there, but there they were at breakfast.  And while bald eagles gather in great numbers, usually in January, on Lake Coeur d'Alene some 75 miles to the north-northeast, their appearance around my property is only slightly more common than the distant mountain view.  Yet after lunch, there was one mature one circling my property.  Wow!

Returning to the theme of this blog with a "department of personal experiences" report:

My March commuting to Washington is now over and I'm awaiting my car and household goods in a small 14th-floor apartment in the city.  My new broadcast reception is so far all-digital.  I sent an HDTV monitor and Samsung DTV decoder (5th-gen chip) on by UPS and purchased a Sangean HD Radio component tuner which I'm currently using with the HDTV monitor's RGB input.  I have floor to ceiling door to the balcony and have tried the DTV tuner with two antennas -- a small Phillips model in a weather-proof wing-like enclosure that's meant to be mounted on an outside pole, and a Terk UHF log periodic with a built-in set of standard rabbit ears.  The FM antenna is a standard twin-lead folded dipole laying on the floor in a sort of drooping T configuration.  I don't know where the transmitters are located, but my antennas are looking toward the east.

The HD Radio performs quite well on the FM band.  I can pick up several HDR stations, including WAMU and WETA-FM, the local NPR stations.  The Phillips TV antenna worked well back in Idaho, but here it enables only a handful of channels to be accessed via scanning.  The Terk does much better with the rabbit ears extended, though I've not found any configuration that permits me to pick up the Washington PBS stations, WETA and WHUT.  I can, however, get a Maryland Public Television station as well as the "MHz" public station from Virginia (which is broadcasting five SD channels, all of which look pretty good).

The HD Radio experience is pretty seamless, thank goodness, but the repeated scan/adjust antenna/rescan/adjust antenna/rescan thing on the TV side is a real pain and I doubt many consumers will go through it.  Who invented this turkey?!?  Oh, it does look nice when it locks in on a channel. 

Updated 7 April 2008:
Stephen Hill writes privately (highly paraphrased here), Get cable!.  Yes, I'm going to do that as soon as my large screen shows up, and my unstated point is that so will most other over-the-air viewers.  To traditional broadcasters -- and especially to public television stations -- these viewers will then become economically much less important (see many earlier posts on this topic).  --Dennis

Boy Scouts, Meals on Wheels to help with DTV transition information?

John Eggerton reports:

How far has the federal campaign for the digital-TV transition gone? The National Telecommunications and Information Administration considered deploying the Boy Scouts of America to help inform over-the-air analog TV viewers that they could lose their TV picture at 12:01 a.m. Feb. 18, 2009, just one year from today, unless they get a converter box, a new TV, or are already hooked up to cable or satellite.  ¶  Converter-box retailers held talks with Boy Scout organizations about coming up with a DTV-transition merit badge for helping some older ladies and gentlemen cross the digital divide, although the plan may be scrapped over concerns about sending scouts into strangers' homes. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission is talking to the Meals on Wheels Association of America about delivering DTV education along with food. ...

Link:  Broadcasting & Cable.  Help that elderly person cross the street and give him a $40 coupon, too.  --Dennis

Many Obstacles to Digital TV Reception, Study Says

Oh, really?  That's been obvious to many of us for years, so the headline comes off like one from The Onion (such as "Local Girlfriend Always Wants To Do Stuff").  But these problems have now been "validated" by new study.  Roy Furchgott has a good review of it:

... The study by Centris, a market research firm in Los Angeles, found gaps in broadcast signals that may leave an estimated 5.9 million TV sets unable to receive as many channels as they did before the changeover. It may affect even those who bought the government-approved converter boxes or a new digital TV. To keep broadcast reception, many viewers may have to buy new outdoor antennas, the study found. ...

Link: New York Times.  --Dennis

PBCore metadata standard

The PBCore metadata standard is, IMHO, one of the most important and, arguably, the most progressive thing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has ever funded.  It's a necessary tool to enable public media to transition to the digital age -- assuming, of course, that public media's managers can find their way to the digital age. 

Marcia Brooks is directing the project from the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH in Boston and she's written a great article on it for the December 17th issue Current, the public broadcasting newspaper.  Current seems to delay posting its articles online for some reason, so the the Public Television Digital Archive has posted a copy of Get going in metadata today with this amazing free kit! online [PDF].  Nice job, Marcia, and thanks to Nan Rubin for posting this important overview.

Update 29 December 2007:  I see that the PDF has also been posted at the PBCore web site.

Update, 4 January 2008:
An HTML version is now posted at Current.  --Dennis

MovieBeam closes. Bad news for Vudu, AppleTV?

Steve O'Hear writes:

... MovieBeam, an early attempt at creating a consumer facing set-top box and accompanying movie service, has closed its doors after fours years in business.  ¶  Originally founded by The Walt Disney Company and later sold to U.S. video rental chain Movie Gallery, MovieBeam was designed to bypass Cable and Satelite providers by beaming movies wireless into the home. The set-top box came with dozens of movies already stored and ready for rental (at $5 a pop), with forty new titles refreshed each month. In total the device could store around a hundred movies at any one time. ...

Link:  last100.

O'Hear thinks this may be bad news for other new entrants in the set-top box market.  I don't doubt that set-top box fatigue (what David Liroff calls the "topple factor") is at work here.  But MovieBeam also faced impending delivery problems.  It was distributing movies over the small amount of ancillary data capacity of analog television stations, including many public television stations.  Those analog transmitters are going away in 13½ months.  While the replacement digital system has much more capacity, it will also, IMHO, come with much greater support costs due to the fragile reception issues inherent in the ATSC digital standard.  I wouldn't be surprised if that figured in MovieBeam's decision also.

But even without the set-top box, video downloading is a problematic business.  After less than a year, Wal-Mart has announced that it's closing its video download store.  Again, Steve O'Hear writes:

... In a bid to get all of the major studios on board, while at the same time not compete negatively with Wal-Mart’s traditional DVD sales, the service was plagued by high pricing and a ridiculously large dose of DRM (one Windows-PC only). It was doomed from the start. ...

Link:  last100.  --Dennis

Farewell to the Great CRT

Television engineering legend Charlie Rhodes has a wonderful history of television displays in an article of this name in TV Technology.  Thanks to Cliff Benham for the tip.  --Dennis

Leichtman study: persons aware of DTV transition still in minority

Leichtman Research Group has completed a new report, HDTV 2007: Consumer Awareness, Interest and Ownership, based on a survey of 1,300 U.S. households.  The following findings are from their press release:

• 37% strongly agree that they understand how the digital transition will affect their household
• 35% strongly agree that they care about how the digital transition will affect their household
• LRG estimates that there are about 35 million television sets in households that currently do not subscribe to a multi-channel video provider (and a similar number of over-the-air only television sets in multi-channel video households).  Among the group of non-subscribers to a multi-channel video service – who will be most impacted by the digital transition – overall, 19% are both aware of the digital transition and strongly agree that they understand how the digital transition will affect their household
• 56% of those in households with an annual income of over $75,000 say that they have heard of the digital transition – compared to 36% of those in households with an annual income under $75,000

The 43% of adults it identifies who have heard of the 2/19/2009 transition is up from one-third of adults a year ago.  But one has to wonder how many of these people think that, like the title of Leichtman's report, the digital transition means HDTV rather than how they receive their signals.  --Dennis

FCC’s 13th Annual Video Competition Report

The FCC is out with its annual report on video competition (news release with thanks to Bert Manfredi on the OpenDTV list).  I'll link to the full report when it's posted.  --Dennis

Here are specific findings from the news release:

• The number of TV households and the number of MVPD subscribers increased since the FCC released its last report. As of June 2006, there were 110.2 million TV households, compared to 109.6 million in June 2005. Of that number, approximately 95.8 million TV households subscribe to an MVPD service, versus 94.2 million as of June 2005.
• Section 612(g) of the Act states that: (1) “at such time as cable systems with 36 or more activated channels are available to 70 percent of households within the United States” and (2) “are subscribed to by 70 percent of the households to which such systems are available, the Commission may promulgate any additional rules necessary to provide diversity of information sources.” According to Warren Communications News, a source on which we have traditionally relied, 71.4 percent of households passed by cable systems offering 36 or more channels subscribe to these systems. However, other data sources do not demonstrate that the second prong has been met. As a result, we conclude that the only way to accurately measure the 70/70 test is to collect data directly from the cable industry.  Therefore, the Commission requires each cable operator to submit the following information for 2006 within 60 days under penalty of perjury: 1) the total number of homes the cable operator currently passes; 2) the total number of homes the cable operator currently passes with 36 or more activated channels; 3) the total number of subscribers; and 4) the total number of subscribers with 36 or more activated channels.
• Cable continues to serve the largest percentage of MVPD subscribers. The Report finds that as of June 2006, approximately 68.2 percent of MVPD subscribers received video programming from a franchised cable operator.
• DBS subscribers comprise the second largest group of MVPD households, representing 29 percent of total MVPD subscribers as of June 2006. DBS operators continue to add local-into-local broadcast television service. In approximately 175 of the 210 television markets, at least one DBS provider offers the signals of local broadcast stations.
• The number of MVPD subscribers choosing all other delivery technologies represented 2.6 percent of all subscribers in June 2006.
• The Nielsen Company estimated that, as of January 2007, 15.5 million households, or about 14 percent of all television households rely on over-the air television broadcasts for video programming.  In addition, many households that subscribe to an MVPD also rely on over-the-air signals to receive broadcast programming on some of their television sets.
• From June 30, 2005 to June 30, 2006, the number of commercial and noncommercial television stations rose from 1,747 to 1,753. As of January 2007, approximately 1,600 stations nationwide were on the air with DTV operations, including all 119 stations affiliated with the top-four network affiliates in the top 30 television markets.
• Incumbent local exchange carriers also are providing video service. At the end of 2006, Verizon reported that it offered video programming via FiOS TV to more than 2.4 million households in 200 cities in 10 states and served 207,000 subscribers. At the end of 2006, AT&T served approximately 11 cities through U-verse TV. In addition, Qwest has taken steps to provide IPTV service in its service area.
• As of June 2006, Broadband Service Providers (“BSPs”) served approximately 1.4 million subscribers, representing 1.5 percent of all MVPD households.
• Electric and gas utilities also provide MVPD and other services on a limited basis. The American Public Power Association, which represents more than 20,000 not-for-profit community and state-owned electric utilities, reports that the average subscriber penetration rate for its members offering video service was 50 percent of the homes passed by utility video services, and that 40 percent of these subscribers purchase a combination of video and high-speed Internet access service.
• The number of subscribers to private cable operator systems, also known as satellite master antenna systems, has declined to 900,000 subscribers as of 2006, a decrease of ten percent from last year’s one million subscribers.
• The number of wireless cable subscribers has declined steadily from a peak of 1.2 million in 1996 to approximately 100,000 as of June 2006, unchanged from a year earlier.
• In recent years, major commercial mobile radio service and other wireless providers have begun offering services that allow subscribers to access video programming through handheld devices, such as mobile telephones.
• The amount of web-based video provided over the Internet continues to increase significantly each year. In July 2006, 107 million Americans, three out of every five Internet users, viewed video  online. In July 2006, about 60 percent of U.S. Internet users downloaded videos. More than 7 billion videos were downloaded that month.
• Between July 2005 and June 2006, a total of 28 MVPD transactions were announced. Together these transactions were valued at approximately $5.3 billion and affected approximately 1.8 million subscribers.
• In 2006 we identified 565 satellite-delivered national programming networks, an increase of 34 networks over the 2005 total of 531 networks. Of the 565 networks, 84 (14.9 percent) were vertically integrated, or affiliated, with at least one cable operator. Five of the top seven cable operators own, in whole or in part, all of the networks that are affiliated with any cable operator.
• In 2006, we identified 101 regional networks, an increase of six over those identified in 2005. These networks provide programming of local or regional interest and are distributed to subscribers of one or more MVPDs in an area. Of these, 57 networks, or 56.4 percent, were vertically integrated with at least one multi-system cable operator (“MSO”). There are 43 regional sports networks, representing 42.6 percent of all regional networks, as compared to the 37 we reported last year. Of the 43 regional sports networks, 19, or 44.2 percent, are vertically integrated with a cable MSO.
• The sale of DTV consumer electronics continues to accelerate. The Consumer Electronics Association (“CEA”) estimates that, in 2006, digital televisions (“DTVs”) will have outsold analog televisions by 66 percent.
• The development and deployment of CableCARDs continued in 2006. CableCARDs permit the reception of secured digital cable services without the addition of a set-top box. As of December 22, 2006, more than 216,000 CableCARDs had been deployed by cable operators, up from 90,000 the previous year.
• The Report also surveyed developments in foreign markets. MVPDs in a number of countries provide programming on an a la carte basis or in mixed bundles, themed tiers, and subscriber-selected tiers. For example, in Hong Kong, consumers receive a free basic package and also can subscribe to more programming for an additional charge per channel. In Canada, the largest cable operators offer a la carte services. In the United Kingdom, consumers may select additional programming services they want, either on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis, without first purchasing a monthly basic-tier package. In India, as of January 1, 2007, consumers in certain cities can subscribe to programming on a per channel basis.

Best Buy stalls on converter box coupons

Steven Sande reports that Best Buy may not be ready to accept the $40 government coupons for DTV converter boxes until April 1st:

... The cutover to digital TV, with its myriad details, is difficult enough to explain to consumers. For months, Congress has been urging broadcasters to promote the change to DTV early and often. But if viewers cannot use their coupons at what is, for many households, the default store for electronics purchases, it undercuts the coupon program’s credibility.  ¶  The retailer told Congress this week that its computers and cash registers will not be ready to handle the government coupons on January 1. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released the government’s rules for the coupon program in March, so it’s not as if Best Buy hasn’t had enough time to prepare for the necessary changes to its systems. ...

And that the NTIA has known this all along:

... The Bush administration may have even signaled to retailers that if they weren’t ready in time, no big deal. Indeed, earlier this year the Commerce Department suggested as much, in the discussion section of its converter box coupon rules:

The [Digital TV] Act requires NTIA to accept requests for coupons between January 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009, and thus, it proposed that retailers be ready to redeem coupons starting January 1, 2008, consistent with the statutory guidance. NTIA expects widespread retailer POS system modifications to occur in the first quarter of 2008.

In other words, the news that stores may not be ready until April 1 is not really news to NTIA.

Link:  Digital TV Facts: The Latest.

This comes as it's announced that NTIA head John Kneuer is stepping down "to pursue new opportunities."  Link:  AP.  For those caught in television's coming Katrina, we can paraphrase our president: "You've done a heckuva job, Johnnie."  --Dennis

Satellite TV Fails Public Television

Consultant (and former PBS exec) Michael Soper contacted both DirecTV and Dish about carriage of PBS station HD programming and got noncommittal answers.  This is from DirecTV's response:

... While I do not have any information specifically about PBS in your area, we do value programming like this and realize PBS in HD is important to our customers. Unfortunately, due to limits in bandwidth, we are not able to offer all of the local channels we provide to the Salt Lake area in HD. ...

Link:  Rare Medium.  He also did an earlier post on this topic.  I agree with Michael, of course, but we in public television could be doing something to make this happen much faster.  Currently, most public television stations are still broadcasting the PBS HD feed, not an HD version of our main channel.  Therefore, the two main satellite companies would need to set aside large chunks of spectrum for 7x24 programming differentiated only by station IDs.  More stations need to do HD versions of their main analog channel with all the localization (acquisitions, local programming, underwriting, and pledge breaks) that implies -- that is, HD when it's available and upconverted SD when it's not -- not just to make satellite carriage more attractive but because their "main" program channel looks pretty pathetic next to their HD channel and that of their commercial colleagues.  PBS is moving to help stations do this, but I fear we'll be missing out on early adopter interest if we don't move fast.  For my stations, that means not waiting for PBS.  --Dennis

BBC Moves Toward Digital TV in a Challenging Period

Eric Pfanner has an interesting article on issues that the BBC is facing in the New York Times.

Updated 30 October 2007:
But on the other hand, it's expanding its international operations.  See Chris Williams, BBC readies global web and TV expansion.  Link:  The Register.   --Dennis

The Broadcast Triple Play

Michael Harris, Chief Analyst for Cable Digital News, writes for those in the cable industry who don't like the FCC's recent ruling on digital must carry:

... Once again proving that the broadcast industry has the FCC in its back pocket, the commission ruled that cable operators will need to carry local broadcast TV signals in both analog and digital formats starting in 2009.  ¶  Adding insult to injury, MSOs must carry broadcasters' high-definition signals, too. In other words, cable operators are required to transmit the same TV programming in three formats. Now, that's a triple play!  And a tremendous waste of privately owned cable spectrum. ...

Link:  Light Reading. 

His colleague, Jeff Baumgartner in DTV's Broader Logic, is a little more sanguine:

Although there are some differences of opinion about how well cable's lobbying arms fared in the whole dual-must carry ruling from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) , I think they did a commendable job obtaining a compromise on a couple of important points, particularly after the pounding much of the industry took from the feds before and after the July 2007 ban on integrated security set-tops. (See Verizon & Others Get Their  Waivers and FCC Denies Comcast Again .) ...

Link:  Light Reading.  --Dennis

Digital broadcasting set to transform communication landscape by 2015

  In the U.S., virtually all writing about the digital broadcasting transition is framed in marketplace terms.  Often, this commentary has a pessimistic spin as did an article in the Charlotte Observer from the NAB Radio Show that I posted on Thursday, Bad times ahead for terrestrial radio.  However, in Europe and some other parts of the world, the benefits of the transition are seen in more social democratic terms, as in this press release from the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva:

A treaty agreement was signed today at the conclusion of ITU’s Regional Radiocommunication Conference (RRC-06) in Geneva, heralding the development of ‘all-digital’ terrestrial broadcast services for sound and television. The digitalization of broadcasting in Europe, Africa, Middle East and the Islamic Republic of Iran by 2015 represents a major landmark towards establishing a more equitable, just and people-centred Information Society. The digital switchover will leapfrog existing technologies to connect the unconnected in underserved and remote communities and close the digital divide. ...

Link:  ITU.  Thanks to David Liroff for the link.  --Dennis

NTIA Approves First Coupon Converter Boxes

Doug Lung reports:

Digital Stream has obtained the first NTIA approval for an ATSC digital-to-analog set-top converter box. The converter will be available at major retailers starting in January 2008. NTIA found the two Digital Stream converters, D2A1D10 and D2A1D20, met all of its requirements, are RoHS-compliant and exceed Energy Star requirements. The suggested retail price for the converters was estimated to be $69.99. ...

Link:  TVTechnology.  Thanks to John Shutt on the OpenDTV list for this tip.  There are no pictures or specs available on the Digital Stream web site other than the press release linked above.

Also see Steven Sande's, Radio Shack to stock DTV converter boxes.  Link: Digital TV Facts.  Remember, folks, that these subsidized boxes are designed to make your existing analog television work with the new digital standard.  They are not designed to permit you to view HD programming in high definition on your new HD monitor.

And also see Steven's NTIA announces DTV transition initiatives, where he writes:

... That ... would seem to suggest that Best Buy will participate in the government’s DTV converter box coupon program. I hope Geek Squad will offer installation help to consumers who need it—hands-on, in-home help remains a crucial missing piece of DTV transition efforts to date.  ¶ People can debate whether the government and the television industry are doing enough to accomplish a seamless DTV cutover, but the partnerships already developing are cause for optimism. ...

Link: Digital TV Facts.  --Dennis

Unlicensed broadband devices in TV spectrum "white space"

Broadcasters (MSTV, et al.) have been fighting the introduction of unlicensed broadband devices in the spectrum they occupy citing interference concerns.  Both sides have been conducting tests.  The New America Foundation's Wireless Future Program  has been an advocate for this more permissive use of the TV spectrum and it has issued a new policy brief by Sascha D. Meinrath and Michael Calabrese, The Feasibility of Unlicensed Broadband Devices to Operate on TV Band 'White Space' Withoug Causing Harmful Interference: Myths & Facts.  Link:  New America Foundation (see attached pdf).  --Dennis

Cable gets a win at the FCC

Ted Hearn writes:

... After an 11-hour delay to the start of its monthly meeting, the FCC voted 5-0 at about 10 p.m. to require cable systems to distribute local TV stations that demand carriage in both analog and digital formats for a three-year period starting Feb. 18, 2009. That’s the day after all 1,756 full-power TV stations must turn off their analog signals and rely exclusively on their digital feeds. Cable systems that are all-digital are exempt from the FCC’s dual carriage mandate.  ¶  [Chairman] Martin’s [original] plan called for dual must carry without the 2012 sunset, which the FCC did reserve the right to extend. Lobbying pressure from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association forced Martin to yield not only on perpetual dual carriage but also on a second priority: Requiring cable systems to transmit “all content bits” in a digital TV signal, thereby eliminating the use of signal compression and statistical multiplexing that husband bandwidth. ...

Link:  Multichannel News.

Also see Brooks Boliek's, Analog, digital a must for cable.  Link:  The Hollywood Reporter.

Update 13 September 2007:
Here is the FCC news release.  Link:  Word  PDF.  --Dennis

Cable Ads Mark Switch to Digital TV

John Dunbar writes:

The cable television industry has launched a $200 million advertising campaign to assure customers they will still be able to watch their favorite programs after the transition to digital broadcasting.  ¶  The ad campaign includes four 30-second spots to be aired on both broadcast and cable networks. Ads began airing in the Washington, D.C., market this week.  ¶  The spots open with a graphic that reads: "By law TV stations will end analog broadcasts on February 17, 2009, and broadcast exclusively in digital." That's followed by cable customers assuring viewers that "every TV set you have that's hooked up to cable will work just fine." ...

Link:  Washington Post.  I'm trying to decide if this is good for broadcasters or not.  On the one hand, it will definitely raise viewer awareness about the transition.  On the other hand, any over-the-air viewers who move to cable because of this will be less reliant on broadcasters for their television than those who choose to stay with OTA.  And there's a potential of confusion between the cable messages and those from the upcoming NAB campaign.

Updated 7 September 2007:
Brooks Boliek has more on cable's campaign in The Hollywood Reporter.

Speaking of the NAB campaign, they've just announced the campaign will launch by the end of the month.  It appears that its timing was moved up in response to the cable effort.  See John Eggerton, NAB to Launch DTV-Education PSA Campaign This Month.  Link:  Broadcasting & Cable.  --Dennis

Single-frequency network proposed for over-the-air transmission in New York City

ION Media Networks (formerly Paxson Communications Corp.) and Richland Towers have announced the completion of successful testing of a single-frequency network (SFN) for New York City.  In brief, a SFN uses multiple synchronized transmitters at different locations, operating on the same frequency, to replicate the coverage of a traditional "big stick" single-transmitter system.  At least one such system for digital television broadcasting is operating in an initial configuration for public television station WPSX at Pennsylvania State University.  From the ION press release:

... The Richland DTx single frequency network consists of a main, high-powered “hub” site in West Orange, N.J., providing coverage to most of the market area; and five low-power DTxT sites that serve the remainder of the area. Multiple rounds of testing were conducted at the main West Orange site and a transmitter site at 4 Times Square in Manhattan. The test teams obtained field measurements from the two sites and compared them to measurements taken from five stations transmitting from the Empire State Building. Field strength, signal quality, reception and all other parameters for the DTx network were comparable to or better than those from the Empire State stations. The test results are being made available to other interested broadcasters. ...

Link to the related article in Broadcast Engineering. 

Public television stations frequently operate with transmitters that are not located at the cluster of antennas used by commercial television stations in a market (my Pullman, Washington station is one such) and therefore operate at a disadvantage in terms of receive antenna orientation.  SFNs offer a solution to this problem.  --Dennis

In-Stat: U.S. households with little or no interest in HDTV on the rise

Broadcast Engineering reports:

The percentage of U.S. households that said they were interested in HDTVs fell this year compared to those who expressed an interest last year, and the number or those reporting to have little or no interest has grown, according to a series of studies from market research firm In-Stat.  ¶  At the same time, worldwide interest in HDTV among consumers is rising, with particularly strong interest in France and South Korea, the research firm said. The reports also showed that consumers are choosing LCD TVs over their plasma display equivalents in good number, which will be responsible for LCD televisions claiming 75 percent of the market by 2011 and the plasma market share dwindling to below 15 percent. ...

--Dennis

IBM to administer DTV converter program ...

... for the NTIA.  Link:  Broadcast Engineering.  --Dennis

Digital must-carry vs. faster IP-over-cable Internet access

Michael Harris makes the following proposal:

... Not surprisingly, MSOs and cable programmers continue to cry foul over broadcast digital must-carry and the possibility of multicast carriage. They well should. (See Cable's All-Upset Over All-Digital.)  ¶  But what the cable industry has failed to articulate is an alternative plan for the use of the spectrum that would be wasted under digital must-carry requirements.  ¶  Here's a suggestion. If the FCC deep-sixes digital must-carry, MSOs pledge to use the spectrum to rollout 100-Mbit/s Internet access nationwide. Move the argument into the marketplace, and empower consumers to pressure politicians still under the spell of broadcast lobbyists. ...

Link:  Cable Digital News.  I'm not advocating a position here, but we broadcasters might think about whether having a 100 mbps pipe to consumers might be better for our business model in the long run than trying to monetize more linear channels on already over-stuffed cable systems.  --Dennis

The Stupidity of Spectrum Auctions in a World of SDR

The television industry is ending some 80 years of analog broadcasting in February 2009 so that spectrum it's vacating (digital television channels can be more tightly packed) can be auctioned off to help pay for all those wonderful benefits our federal government provides.  The impending spectrum auction has broadband providers and associated businesses salivating and others like incumbent broadcasters and major sports operators asserting some of their devices will cause interference (see here and here).

But some people make the case that the whole notion of spectrum is outmoded and wasteful.  Consultant Gordon Cook makes the case in a post of this title.  He writes:

... It is now possible to build software defined radios that can listen for other spectrum users in the neighborhood and fine tune their behavior sufficiently enough to stay out of each other’s way and hence not interfere.  ¶  The problem was that, even if the Republican FCC were not controlled by the duopolists, whom it pretends to regulate, we would still be shackled by the analogue based presumption of spectrum scarcity.  In a mindless effort to raise revenues for the federal government these private equity based non public good companies have paid for exclusive right to use spectrum where it was formerly thought that only a single person could ever talk in the space in a “single time slot” or frequency. ...

Link:  Cook's Collaborative Edge.  --Dennis

Microsoft says failed interference test due to bad component

Earlier this month, I posted a story about an FCC report (see FCC OET report supports claims of interference by unlicensed devices) that supported claims of interference to DTV reception by proposed unlicensed wireless broadband devices.  Microsoft now says it was due to a bad component in the prototype device.  Bloomberg News reports:

... Microsoft said it discovered the broken component during meetings last week with FCC engineers. The company then conducted the same signal tests, in the presence of FCC engineers, on a spare device and found it worked properly, Krumholtz said. ...

Link:  Boston Globe.

Also see Glen Dickson's, NAB Issues Preemptive Strike Against Microsoft In White Spaces Battle.  Link:  Broadcasting & Cable.

Update 14 Aug. 2007:
Two more.  Nate Anderson, Microsoft: FCC tested broken white spaces device, neglected backup unit.  Link:  Ars Technica.  Kim Hart,  Microsoft Disputes FCC's Rejection of Web Devices That Use TV Airwaves.  Link:  Washington Post.  --Dennis

FCC OET report supports claims of interference by unlicensed devices

Veteran broadcast engineering consultant Charlie Rhodes must be smiling today.  No one has been more active in warning about interference to television broadcasters from proposed unlicensed devices using the same spectrum, and yesterday Tuesday the FCC issued a report supporting this position.

Nate Anderson writes:

The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology issued a report late yesterday that gave negative marks to current attempts at building a personal "white space" receiver and transmitter. Such a device could open up the empty spaces in the television spectrum for unlicensed wireless broadband, unleashing a surge of creativity and innovation that could make WiFi look as attractive as a 900MHz cordless phone. That is, so long as such a device actually works.  ¶  On the day that the switch over to digital television broadcasts is finalized in early 2009, companies could be free to sell unlicensed devices that can send and receive information in whatever parts of the television spectrum are unused in a given location (well, except for channels 37 and 52-69), so long as they meet FCC engineering criteria. Because the low frequencies used by over-the-air television signals are able to cover great distances and penetrate walls with ease, they theoretically provide a perfect place to deploy wireless broadband technologies over great distances—without having to purchase a chunk of licensed spectrum at auction. ...

Link:  Ars Technica.

From the FCC web site:

FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Announces the Release of Reports of Initial Measurements on TV White Space Devices.
Public Notice: Word | Acrobat
Prototype Devices Report: Acrobat
Appendices A & B: Acrobat
Direct Pickup Report: Word | Acrobat

Disclosure:  I'm on the board of the Association of Public Television Stations, one of the organizations which has been expressing concerns about interference from these devices.  Still, I hope that through finding alternative spectrum, improvements in the interference rejection characteristics of receivers, "smart" broadband devices or other means, we can encourage open spectrum usage by wireless broadband devices.  We broadcasters need to embrace alternative platforms for content distribution. 

Update 7 August 2007:
See also Robert Horvitz's, FCC announces test results for TV "white-space" prototypes.  Link: Open Spectrum.  --Dennis

FCC sets 700-MHz auction rules

Nate Anderson writes:

... What eventually came out of the meeting was an interesting mix of policies: a Frontline-style public/private partnership for public safety, a weakened form of "open access" for new commercial licensees, and no wholesale requirement. ...

Link:  Ars Technica.

Hype cycle for consumer technologies

Gartner has published its 2007 hype cycle chart for a large number of consumer technologies.   Click on image for larger version.  Note the relative positions of digital terrestrial radio (HD Radio) on the far left and digital terrestrial television (DTV) on the far right.  Via Bobbie Johnson at The Guardian Technology blog.  --Dennis

TV train wreck ahead [Gee, do you think?]

Jim Puzzanghera writes:

Millions of TV sets that rely on antennas may go dark in a little more than 18 months, and the government needs to do much more to help people who own them see the light, senators said Thursday.  ¶  "I think there's high potential for a train wreck here," Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) told Federal Communications Commission and Commerce Department officials during a hearing on the transition to digital-only signals. ...

... Democrats appear poised to push for more money and public service announcements to prepare TV owners. U.S. officials have budgeted $5 million to tell people about the switch and coupons that will cover most of the cost of a no-frills converter box. The coupons will be available Jan. 1 on a first-come, first-served basis. ...

Link: Los  Angeles Times.  Thanks to Katy June-Friesen at Current. 

See also Steven Sande's Let's avoid that digital TV 'train wreck':

The shutdown of analog television broadcasts in 2009 offers “high potential for a train wreck,” according to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). Is the digital TV transition a disaster in the making?  ¶   It’s still too early to tell. Alarm bells were rung at today’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, where an AARP official raised the prospect of senior citizens losing their television service and taking it out on Congress. That’s exactly what would happen, too, if we switched over tomorrow. Surveys continue to show low levels of awareness about what will happen on February 17, 2009, when over-the-air broadcasters will complete the change to digital TV. Personally, I’m not despairing—not yet. ...

Link:  Digital TV Facts.  --Dennis

No Moto in DTV converter box market

Steven Sande writes:

As momentum builds for the digital TV transition, Motorola has been notably absent from the DTV converter box party. ...

Link:  Digital TV Facts.  --Dennis

NAB: Back to the Paper Bag

Capitol Hill and telecom watcher Drew Clark says:

... right now television and radio broadcasters have never been weaker than in 1982, when Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., uttered these famous words: “The NAB can’t lobby its way out of a paper bag.” ...

He then has some interesting analysis of the interest in the UHF TV spectrum, and ends with:

... But for those who believe that the NAB is amenable to reason, and economic incentives, here’s the next puzzle: what will it take to entice broadcasters to sell, give up or vacate the remaining airwaves? There are plenty of telcos, techies, and community activists that believe they can do better with them. All they need now is a game plan to help the broadcasters out of their paper bag.

Link:  DrewClark.com.

To be read in conjunction with The Art of Spectrum Lobbying.  --Dennis

The Art of Spectrum Lobbying

The New America Foundation has released a report by J. H. Snider with this title, but the subtitle, "America's $480 Billion Spectrum Giveaway, How it Happened, and How to Prevent it from Recurring," is more descriptive.  Snider has written widely on spectrum issues, often for the NAF, where he is Research Director of its Wireless Future Program.  His points frequently include the inefficiency of current spectrum allocations (television broadcasting being one of the biggest), that the public should receive compensation for use of the spectrum (which would incent efficient use), and the importance of allocating additional spectrum to wireless IP delivery.  One might describe the effects of the first and third as moving spectrum from my mother to my children.

I generally admire the work of the NAF and have spoken at one of its events.  While I think his writing is thoughtful and constructive, I've also been critical that he and other wireless advocates frequently low-ball the number of Americans who depend on over-the-air reception and that he presents an analysis of how spectrum should be allocated for broadcasting that misses the realities of consumer behavior and broadcast economics: paraphrasing -- they have one standard definition channel now, so they should be able to get by with one of their current six megahertz in the digital world.

I've only had a chance to skim the paper, but it will be important reading for broadcasters, if only to keep us from taking the public spectrum we occupy for granted.  And you just might learn something.

Link:  New America Foundation. 

Update 21 July 2007:
If you're interested in the above, also check out:  NAB: Back to the Paper Bag on this weblog.  --Dennis

ATSC-enabled TV sets getting cheaper

I've been hearing reports of under-$200 television sets with built-in ATSC DTV tuners all spring and summer.  Circuit City now has one for under $90, a 13" Prima model.  Thanks to Ralph Hogan for the link.  --Dennis

TV advertising will grow, but who will eat the cake?

Senaka Balasuriya writes:

According to the USA Today, a recent report published by PWC is forecasting that traditional TV advertising sales will grow 4.5% a year to $46.3 billion in 2011. When you consider product placement revenue and fees that cable, satellite and phone services pay to carry a channel, network TV revenues could grow of 6.5% a year to $85.4 billion in 2011. ...

... So what’s going increase TV viewing? The Internet is becoming a bigger source of videos, but the following will increase TV viewership and even shift Internet Video viewing from the Computer to the TV screen.

1. HDTV – With the high resolution and quality of HDTV, users will not just watch more TV, but also will shift to using the HDTV for watching Internet Video as well. PWC predicts that nearly 59% of homes will have HDTVs in 2011, up from 12.7% at the end of 2006. HDTV uptake will be propped up by falling prices and the FCC mandate to transmit all TV programs in high-def by 2009.
2. DVR - DVR growth is expected to rise to 39% in 2011, up from 11.8% in 2006. With Slingbox and other DVRs, people have already started to record and watch TV, albeit with time-shifting or place-shifting (e.g. watch on mobile).
3. Integration of Internet and TV and the Separation of the Set top Box – With Joost and Apple TV coming to a TV near you, the Internet Videos will be conveniently available on the TV. ...

Link:  Technology Untangled.

New DTV signal strength predictor

I've checked this out only for my own home and haven't had time to check out the included maps (which require a BitTorrent client to download and Google Earth to use), but a new online DTV (also analog) signal strength predictor is available at TV Fool.  Having written and published prediction software based on the Longley-Rice method in the past and evaluating several others, I can testify that there is no perfect implementation of signal strength prediction, but this one looks like it does a much better job incorporating the effects of terrain than does the CEA's AntennaWeb offering.  I'm looking forward to checking it out more later this week.  I'm sure it will be a useful tool for our station technical staff in advising viewers about their DTV receive options.  You might point "advanced viewers" to it directly, but the site is not as consumer-oriented as is AntennaWeb.

Thanks to Dale Kelly on the OpenDTV list for the tip.  --Dennis

The Day Analog TV Died

Kirk at Medialoper has a funny look forward to 19 February 2009.  It begins:

Medialoper: February 19, 2009 — Yesterday morning Herbert Cackin turned on his television set to find nothing but static. Cursing, he assumed his 25 year old Zenith had finally “konked out”. Next he turned on the television in his bedroom only to find the same problem. Finally he tried the set in the bathroom — same thing. At that point Cackin jumped to the conclusion any logical person would come to.

“I was damn sure we’d had another one of them 9-11 style attacks and that this time the terrorists killed our TVs”.

Despite the FCC’s best efforts to inform the public about the new law that requires television stations to abandon analog broadcasts in favor of digital broadcasts, it seems that not everyone got the message. Yesterday, after the switch finally took place, complaints poured in to local television affiliates around the country, and television repair shops were inundated with frantic phone calls. ...

Link:  Medialoper.  If anything can make us smile over this clusterf**k, it's this.  --Dennis

New Media News Digest, 6/5-6/11, 2007

Sondra Russell works for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and writes the following News Digest on a weekly basis.  I think it's a very nice piece of work, but it's distributed by email only.  So she's given me permission to quote it here so it can get RSS distribution and also be seen by people outside of public broadcasting.  Her email address is srussell [at] cpb [dot] org.  --Dennis

SONDRA’S SUMMARY

> The top story this week is that the Digital Transition (a.k.a. Analog Shutoff) is humming along swimmingly, as evidenced by a recent story in the New York Times that LG and RCA are offering $50 conversion boxes by next January.  Couple that with the fact that new televisions, even those cheap $150 models, come with digital converters, and perhaps the 13% of over-the-air-only households (many of which are public television supporters) won’t be as left out as some have feared.

 > The theme of the week is that “local is the new global”.  A recent report from Borrell Associates indicates that online ad dollars are increasingly migrating to sites focusing on geographically local content, and that many newspapers are responding by creating online-only sales departments.  Can local public broadcasting stations be far behind? In the same week, YouTube has announced a revenue-sharing agreement with local affiliate conglomerate Hearst-Argyle  to create online channels for five local broadcast stations.  However, before we get too excited about the potential for local content, Mark Ramsey cautions that local isn’t always about geography.

 > The think piece of the week is that even the experts can’t figure out how to track traffic online.  This week, the Web Analytics Association reported that 81% of analytics professionals surveyed said “the practice is poorly understood in their companies”. There are multiple initiatives rumbling through the public broadcasting system to tackle this very issue, and it may be of some comfort to us that even the experts are having a hard go of it.  This week’s think piece runner up?  That virtual worlds have begun to appear in non-virtual federal courtrooms.  New Media News Digest, June 5th – June 11th, 2007

 INTERNET

Web Analytics Survey Points to Need for Better Processes

From ClickZNews: "In what it claims is the largest such survey ever conducted, the Web Analytics Association (WAA) has released a report finding most analytics professionals feel they and their companies struggle to grasp Web analytics."

 Second Life "land" dispute moves offline to federal courtroom   

From ArsTechnica: "A lawsuit filed in May of 2006 by Pennsylvania attorney Marc Bragg accused Linden Lab of wrongfully seizing his virtual land —intellectual property that Bragg says is worth thousands of (real-life) dollars."

 Borrell Predicts Local Advertisers Will Spend $7.5 Billion Online in '07
From ClickZNews: "Local advertisers are poised to spend $7.5 billion on the Web this year, up over 31 percent from last year, according to the report."

Warner Group in Deal to Offer Free Music via Internet Site
From the NYT: "Major labels have fought to try to keep fans from listening to music without paying for it. Now the Warner Music Group, has made a deal with Lala.com to allow anyone to listen to its music free hoping that doing so will drive music sales."

TELEVISION

Online will overtake TV news within five years   

From Broadcast Enginnering: "[According to Harris Interactive] online news and information sources will overtake TV newscasts within five years. Even today, many people believe it’s already easier to get news online than to read a newspaper."

 YouTube Goes Local in Hearst-Argyle Deal
From AdWeek: "In its latest move, YouTube has struck a deal to create channels for five local broadcast stations owned by Hearst-Argyle. The companies will share ad revenue generated by news and other content."

Apple Close to a Deal with Hollywood for Movie Rentals
From Business 2.0: "Apple's service would compete, however, with the VOD offerings now provided by cable and satellite TV companies, as well as startups like Microsoft’s Xbox Live, Movie­link and Unbox, a joint venture between Amazon and TiVo."

NBC to Let Other Web Sites Post NBC Video
From Reuters: "Independent Web Site and blog owners can add short NBC video using software widgets -- small bits of code that function as dynamic applications when installed on a Web page."

Converters Signal a New Era for TVs
From the NYT: "Yesterday, the National Association of Broadcasters lifted the curtain on two prototypes for those basic digital converters that will start appearing in electronic and department stores in January, at an expected cost of about $50 to $70."

Digital TV Facts

Readers who are about to acquire one of the new digital sets or who might be broadcasters who need to educate viewers about their options should check out the Digital TV Facts (or RSS feed) run by Steven Sande.  I've not read everything, but it has a lot of good consumer information.  --Dennis

The Analog Shutdown: An Alternative Scenario

David Liroff is the new Senior Vice President, System Development and Media Strategy, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the former VP/CTO of WGBH in Boston.  He's a frequent speaker at gatherings of public broadcasting and allied organizations and earlier this month spoke on the topic above to the Public Television Programmers Association.  David has kindly provided the text of his remarks which are reproduced below and are also provided as a pdf in the Links section to the left.  Click Continue reading below.  --Dennis