1. Monthly archive
  2. October 2005

October 2005

Analyst Says Subsidy Compromise Likely

Stuart Wolpin, senior analyst, Points North Group, predicts that the House and Senate will split the difference on money for an analog-to-digital converter box. Currently, the Senate DTV transition bill proposes $3 billion for the subsidy, which could cover 73 million sets, while the House only $990 million ($830 after administrative costs), which could cover maybe 20 million or so. Somewhere in between, he says, should be about enough to cover the 40 million or so households that will need to be covered. Wolpin says that the House bill's "labrythine" process for getting the converter subsidy -- applications, coupons, a first-come, first-served approach," appears to "disincentivize" the very people who will most likely need it, including the poor and minorities, a point echoed by House Democrats Tuesday. More predictions from Points North at the URLs below.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6277745?display=Breaking+News...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
* Going Digital In 2009 Means Chaos For TV Customers, Research Groups Say
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArti...
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10013...

House Democrats Seek Hike In Converter Box Funding

When the House Energy and Commerce Committee takes up digital television legislation today, Democrats on the panel will seek to amend the bill with language that would substantially boost funding for subsidies for purchase of set-top converter boxes. A source said the House Democratic amendment would propose a subsidy of roughly $3.5 billion, putting the lower chamber on par with the Senate. House Energy and Commerce ranking member John Dingell (D-MI) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) are said to be involved in crafting the amendment. Another planned Democratic amendment to the House bill would add $1.25 billion for communications equipment designed to help emergency responders communicate across jurisdictions. The Senate DTV bill includes $1 billion for that purpose, but the House Republican draft has no such funding.

House Bill Would Leave Most Consumers in the Dark During Digital TV Transition

Citing the 80 million analog television sets owned by consumers that will go dark after the digital TV transition, consumers groups Tuesday urged the House Commerce Committee to oppose a measure that would sharply limit funding to keep those TV sets working after the digital transition. The current House proposal ($830 million) covers only one-fourth of the 42 million American households that rely on over-the-air signals for viewing. Last week, the Senate passed its version of the bill, setting aside $3 billion from the $10 billion raised by the auction of public airwaves to help offset the cost of converter boxes needed to keep those TVs working. Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America and US PIRG urged the panel, when it votes Wednesday, to set aside adequate funding from the spectrum auction to fully fund a compensation and education program that ensures consumers won't be hit in the pocketbook during the DTV transition. “By compensating consumers, Congress isn't giving them anything; it merely holds them harmless from a government mandate that would otherwise make their perfectly good personal property virtually useless,” the groups wrote in a letter to the committee. “No consumer should bear the costs of the digital transition, particularly given the ample funding raised by the spectrum auction,” the groups said. See text of letter at the URL below.

Money, Not Waiver, For NY TVs

Expect House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Rep Eliot Engel (D-NY) to introduce today an amendment to the digital transition bill to be considered by the full House Commerce Committee that would carve out some money to help New York television broadcasters harmed on 9/11 catch up with other stations and meet the digital transition deadline.

A Fake End to Fake News

[SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Diane Farsetta, Center for Media and Democracy]

Ensign: My Bill Would Slash Cable Rates

[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) said Tuesday that passage of his telecommunications-reform bill would cause cable incumbents facing new competition from phone companies to slash their rates across the country. Sen Ensign -- whose bill (S. 1504) would ease phone-company entry into local markets by eliminating local franchising -- claimed that the cable incumbent in Keller, Texas, cut its rates by 50% when Verizon Communications Inc. began to provide video service a few months ago.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6277743.html?display=Breaking+News

At Convention, Bell Firms Hear Accolades -- And Barbs

[SOURCE: Technology Daily , AUTHOR: Drew Clark]

Akimbo, Current and the Future of TV

AKIMBO, CURRENT COULD EMBODY TV's NEXT GENERATION
[SOURCE: USAToday]

Cable’s “Level Playing Field” ­ Not Level. No Field.

[SOURCE: Center for Creative Voices in Media]

Why clip Wi-Fi's Wings?

[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]

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