The Senate Commerce Committee has been told of serious technical difficulties facing the planned roll-out of digital television services. But the business interests behind the introduction of digital TV have made it abundantly clear they want the government to butt out and let them straighten out the mess on their own. Republican Senator John McCain called digital television a complex and frankly troubled area, explaining that with existing technology any interference on the UHF band results in complete interruption to service. Attaching equipment to the existing cable doesn’t help much, because the magically clear high definition (HDTV) picture – digital’s main selling point – is thereby reduced to the signal quality of ordinary TV. Consumers have to shell out for expensive new equipment only to discover that their existing devices – VCRs, satellite dishes, DVDs and camcorders – won’t work with it. As McCain observes, this hardly qualifies as a success story in the making. He comes to the startling conclusion that: the interests of major telecommunications companies and average American consumers are often similar, but rarely the same. McCain says it’s up to Congress to ensure that where these interests diverge, consumers must come first. These fine sentiments were rapidly disowned by the other three speakers before the committee. Brian Lamb, chairman and CEO of cable TV company C-SPAN Networks, began with exaggeration and a naked appeal to politicians’ self-interest. If `must carry’ status is granted to digital broadcast signals, the C-SPAN Networks, and most important, the American people who watch the Senate and the House on television, will be harmed, he warned, for our part, the C-SPAN Networks prefer to trust the free market to solve most of the emerging digital television problems. In other words, you mind your own business and we’ll profit handsomely from ours. Alan McCullough, president and COO of retail electronics chain Circuit City Stores Inc, weighed in with a reminder that digital TV is all about planned obsolescence and creating lucrative new areas of demand. Customers do not know to ask for something they have never imagined, seen or heard. But once they see something dramatically better in the store, in the house next door, or on the next channel, then we believe that is what they will want, he explained. His point is that whatever standard is decided upon, Circuit City will bear the main burden of selling it to an unappreciative public. In our opinion, the only presentation of digital television that will create the necessary consumer excitement is full wide-screen high definition television (HDTV), he argued. McCullough acknowledges that HDTV is expensive, but concludes that his customers deserve the very best, however much they end up having to pay for it. The day’s final speaker was Joe Collins, chairman and CEO of Time Warner Cable. He said: I want to reiterate that Time Warner Cable expects and looks forward to the public’s widespread acceptance of digital television, including broadcast digital high definition television. No potential consumers of digital TV were invited to speak before the Senate committee, presumably because they are not considered stakeholders.
