Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

FCC Rules Mandatory Digital TV

Aired August 08, 2002 - 14:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Chances are the television set you are watching now was built for analog signals and analog signals only. That is because the changeover to digital, with its sharper pictures and richer sound, became a chicken-and-egg kind of problem. For years, broadcasters and TV makers have each been waiting for the other to go digital first. Well, today the FCC tried to break that stalemate.
And CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg tells us how that came about.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: That's a very good analogy, the whole chick-and-egg analogy that you mentioned. We've been hearing about the idea of digital TV for the past several years, but it has been who's going to make the first move?: Is it going to be the broadcasters, who are supplying this digital signal, or is it going to be the television manufacturers, who have to make televisions that are capable of receiving this digital signal?

And today, the FCC decided to make this decision. They voted 3-1 in favor of making all TVs manufactured larger sizes of 36 inches and larger by July 2004 to include this digital tuner. And by July 2007, all television sets. So they would be implemented over the next three years, these different sizes, up to this 36 inches, which would have to be by 2004.

WHITFIELD: So, Dan, how much does a digital tuner cost?

SIEBERG: That's a very good point. The consumer rights groups are quite incensed by this decision, and they were complaining leading up to the speculation of it, saying that it could increase the price of a television set by up to $250. The FCC disputes this claim; they say that mass production will bring that price down over time and that it won't increase the price of a new television by that much.

I want to point out that digital tuners mean that if you are receiving a television signal over the air, you would need this digital tuner. But that is a very small percentage of people who get television right now. Most people get cable or satellite television, that the way most people get it -- more than 80 percent of people do. So they wouldn't necessarily need these digital tuners. So the consumer groups are saying this amount to a TV tax, forcing manufacturers to put it in and consumers to potentially have to pay extra.

WHITFIELD: OK. And if I have a satellite, or a even, as you said, cable, this is certainly still going to apply to me? SIEBERG: It will apply to you in that the broadcasters will be putting out these digital signals by 2007. So you could have to go out and get a new TV to receive that signal.

The changeover here is going from analog, which most are familiar with, to this digital signal. Analog is sort of fuzzy, a digital is a sharper picture.

So we'll see what happens over the next few years.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dan Sieberg, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com