FCC Plan To Move To Digital TV About To Collapse - Report
newsbytes.com
By Steve Gold, Newsbytes
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A.,
18 Oct 1999, 6:34 AM CST
The Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) plan to persuade
households to migrate to digital TV is in tatters, a report from
Strategy Analytics says.
The report, entitled "Interactive and Digital Television: Issues in the Transition Phase,"
says that the FCC's plan convert consumers over to digital TV by 2006 is on the
verge of collapse.
However, all is not lost, as the report maps out what it says is likely to be a revised
FCC strategy that will see analog frequencies being released in a 2013 timeframe, at
which stage most all households are expected to be viewing digital TV.
Strategy Analytics says that terrestrial broadcasters can use their digital (DTV)
capacity for either HDTV (High Definition TV) or SDTV (Standard Definition TV).
A debate currently exists over whether the industry should change the technical
specifications of the ATSC (Advanced TV Systems Committee) standard, the study
also said.
The report notes, however, that there is still no proven business model for either
HDTV or SDTV, whatever technical standard is adopted. HDTV receivers, the report
says, will always be too expensive for mass market adoption.
The SDTV option, meanwhile, is under threat from satellite and cable operators,
which are rapidly converting their customer base to superior digital services, the
report also said.
The report concludes that, over the coming decade, terrestrial broadcasting will
continue to lose share to cable and satellite, and eventually also to Internet-based
online video distribution.
One key issue that many in the TV industry seem to have overlooked, the report
says, is the difficulty associated with providing digital services to multi-device
households.
Strategy Analytics says that more than a quarter of US households own three or
more TV receivers, most of which rely on over-the-air analog TV signals. Every set,
the report says, must be capable of receiving digital signals before analog
broadcasting can be switched off.
Against this backdrop, the report recommends a universal broadband strategy, which
encourages universal dependence on non-terrestrial broadcasting. This will, the report
says, eventually allow analog terrestrial spectrum to be switched off and replaced by
digital.
David Mercer, a senior analyst with Strategy Analytics, said that analog broadcasting
is an anachronism in today's digital world, but it also fulfils a public service role.
Mercer said that switching off NTSC is going to be a far greater challenge than most
people realize. The report, he added, says that less than five percent of US
households will be watching over-the-air DTV by 2005.
Strategy Analytics' Web site is at strategyanalytics.com .
Reported by Newsbytes.com, newsbytes.com . |
