Consumer Techonolgy Update

Abstract

SO MUCH interesting technology news has been released in the last few months that it is difficult to decide just what to write about. Examples of these big news stories involve digital TV, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, location-based cell phones, and a major security flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Since this news affects nearly everyone, it seems appropriate to discuss some of it in detail. Over the summer, the Federal Communications Commission's deadline for all nonpublic television stations to broadcast digital TV (DTV) passed. However, according to Bruce Johnson, writing in DV-Digital Video magazine, only 27% of all stations are actually able to broadcast a DTV signal, and only 15% are licensed to do so.1 Of the 1,688 licensed TV stations in the US, only 256 can currently broadcast DTV. Apparently, hundreds of small- market stations just can't afford the million-dollar-plus price tag to upgrade all the necessary equipment. (So much for the effectiveness of government edicts.) More discouraging news from the same magazine. According to the Consumer Electronics Association, it is projected that, by the year 2006, only 20% of all TVs in the U.S. will be able to receive and show DTV. (This 20% figure is probably higher than it looks, since some households have more than one TV.) Why should you care about DTV? There are two reasons. First, the difference between broadcast television and DTV is roughly the equivalent of moving from videotape to DVD, especially in the area of sound quality. Second, if you purchase a new TV in the next few years, you will be faced with the decision of buying a plain television (TV), a DTV display, a DTV display with a DTV tuner, or some combination thereof. This situation warrants further explanation. Today there are four main types of television sets on the market. The old standard TV -- the set we all know -- is the one with the 4:3 aspect ratio (nearly square). The second type is what Johnson labels the Scam, a 4:3 DTV display with no DTV tuner. If you buy this set, you will need an external tuner (expensive), and you will not have the required 16:9 aspect ratio (wide screen) of DTV. The third type of set Johnson labels the eunuch, a 16:9 DTV display without a DTV tuner. This is probably the set most salespeople will try to sell you, but anything other than specially prepared DVDs will not take full advantage of the wide-screen format. The fourth type of set is a true 16:9 DTV display with a DTV tuner. True DTV sets like this one are hard to find in most stores, and they are expensive. Just imagine the massive amount of consumer confusion this whole mess causes! You may not have noticed, but due largely to deregulation, your local TV station may well be in trouble. In Johnson's words, I think the writing is on the wall for local television in the United States: it's doomed to a future of central-cast programming with no local flavor. Here's how deregulation over the last 20 years or so has brought us to this undesirable future. Again quoting Johnson, Up until the early '80s, the limit on ownership for any company was seven TV stations, seven AM radio stations, and seven FM ratio stations. In addition, there were limits on cross ownership. For example, a company that owned a TV station in a market couldn't own a cable system in the same market, and newspaper owners were generally not allowed to own broadcast properties in the same city. This all began to change when Ronald Reagan and his band of deregulators had the FCC change from 7-7-7 into 12-12-12, and that was only the beginning. The Communications Act of 1996 removed almost all meaningful restrictions on radio station ownership: in fact two companies own 70% of all radio stations in the United States. The caps on TV ownership now stand at 35% coverage of the United States. In other words, a company can own as many TV stations as it wants, so long as the size of all markets do not add up to more than 35% of the U. …