One part of the closely watched deal between computer moguls and broadcasters on a digital TV standard has remained murky. And that's just how lobbying giants like Intel and Microsoft want it.
The Advanced Television System Committee has agreed not to recommend that the FCC mandate a type of transmission format that's incompatible with computers. In exchange, the computer industry has agreed to stay out of the digital TV proceeding for good.
The computer giants can spout off about the information superhighway or other non-TV issues, but they can't say a word about digital spectrum auctions, channel allocations, or related interference issues. That is, unless it's in exact agreement with the broadcast industry's party line.
What does this mean for you? A transition to digital TV is now much more likely to occur without any goodies for taxpayers. That's billions of dollars that the government might have extracted for the digital TV spectrum that's now even less likely to materialize.
Perhaps the most amazing part about the deal is that the computer industry agreed to this in writing, in Washington - a town where lobbyists usually scratch each other's backs in private.
Here's how it happened: After almost a week of contentious bickering, the caucusing negotiators for the computer, broadcast, and consumer electronics industries were tired and irritable. According to sources who were there, a virulent bug eventually made most everybody sick.
But with the Thanksgiving deadline approaching - set by FCC Commissioner Susan Ness to reach a resolution - the pressure was on. The computer industry was getting desperate. Key to its anxiety is that computer companies would have to put expensive "de-interlacers" in their computers to display interlaced broadcast video signals on computer screens. So, in the competition for eyeballs, the PC crowd didn't want to be left behind or be saddled with heavy costs. Computers use the more modern "progressive" scanning method.
"It wasn't something to be taken lightly," Intel's Paul Misener said about the concession. But Misener, who headed negotiations for the Computer Industry Coalition on Advanced Television Service, adds that the computer industry's desire to speed digital TV outweighed the concession. "We want this to move forward. We want to see this take off as fast as possible."
Mark Richer, executive director of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, said most broadcasters will end up using progressive scanning anyway - so taking the format issue out of the ATSC's standard won't change anything much. Some 18 scanning format options in ATSC's standard always included both progressive and interlaced options and will remain in place, he said. It's just that now they will be voluntary.
Now it's up to Congress. By clearing out potential opposition by computer interests to oppose them on digital TV issues, broadcasters have taken a potential load off.
