[opendtv] NEWS: Thomson, LG Picked for DTV Converters
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 08:16:52 -0400
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6263614.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
Thomson, LG Picked for DTV Converters
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/5/2005 11:38:00 AM
Thomson and Korean consumer electronics giant LG Electronics have
each been tapped by broadcasters to create a prototype
digital-to-analog converter box.
The box will allow viewers with analog sets to receive over-the-air
digital signals after the analog signal has been turned off, most
likely sometime in 2009.
The National Association of Broadcasters and the Association for
Maximum Service Television (MSTV) co-funded the effort, and evaluated
more than a dozen proposed boxes in a search that began June 20.
There are currently 21 million analog-only homes and 73 million
analog-only sets. That number should go down by 2009, but there are
still anticipated to be many millions of viewers who will need the
converters.
"Developing a high-quality, low-cost converter box ensures that all
Americans will be able to receive emergency information and their
favorite TV shows," said MSTV President David Donovan.
Earlier this month, at the request of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, Korean Electronics powerhouse LG demonstrated its
prototype on Capitol Hill Thursday.
LG has said it would sell for about $50-in the low range of recent
handicapping for the price of the box-assuming "volume in the
millions of units."
Congress is expected to pay for many, if not all, of those converters
to ease the transition and to prevent a backlash at the ballot box if
viewers were suddenly unable to receive over-the-air TV.
The request for quotes was issued in June. Following much talk in
Congress about the cost of converting to digital and of subsidizing
analog-only viewers, the two associations said they would start
taking an active role in developing a low-cost analog-to-digital
converter box.
There is more than technology at play.
NAB and the Consumer Electronics Association have been in a war of
words over the switch to digital. CEA has pushed a hard date while
NAB has argued that could disenfranchise viewers.
At one point, the two groups were planning to work together to
promote the digital switch, but had a falling-out and have been at
some variation of public loggerheads ever since.
The June announcement continued that war, seeming to imply that CEA
members would need some guidance from broadcasters to ensure they
could produce low-cost devices that also worked well. CEA certainly
saw it as a slap. "It's ridiculous," said Michael Petricone, VP,
technology policy for CEA, when the RFQ was issued. "They are making
up an issue where no issue exists."
At an MSTV conference Wednesday, broadcasters agreed that a public
education campaign was crucial, and lamented the absence of a
concerted push by all the players, including the consumer-electronics
industry and retailers.
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