Gulp. FCC chairman Kevin Martin is prepping for a big ol' congressional probe this morning. Martin received a letter today warning that he is being investigated for, "management practices that may adversely affect the Commission's ability to both discharge effectively its statutory duties and to guard against waste, fraud, and abuse." Martin, you'll recall, was recently accused of being in Verizon's back pocket during its attempt to revise the 700MHz open-access rule. The investigation is prompted by allegations made by "credible" FCC employees, both current and former, so far reaching -- including its handling of Comcast and the so-called, 70-percent ruling -- that Ars Technica expects it to turn the "FCC upside down." Martin has two weeks to deliver "a truckload" of records to Congress before this revolution gets televised.

The National Association of Broadcasters has joined the Big Four in petitioning Congress to stop a bill that would include provisions allowing cable television providers the right to downconvert HDTV broadcasts to DTV. Between this new article and a note on TV Predictions, we were also able to better understand what all the fuss is about. If you're as confused as I was, the point of contention here are "must-carry" laws, that would require cable companies to carry multiple HDTV streams that the local affiliates broadcast. The cable companies say this would use up their valuable bandwidth, while the affiliates fear that cable companies could refuse to carry their high definition broadcast unless the affiliates paid them to.

That still seems to be a longshot, as we all know the most desirable HD programming is on the network stations, if cable companies limited that then why would their subscribers pay extra for HD? Additionally, if the reason I can't get HGTV-HD is because there are three ABC affiliates in my area, that would really suck. Of course in some areas cable is all there is and if they refused to carry an HD Super Bowl or other event without payment, customers would be stuck with HDTVs and no HD. Worse yet, they are still trying to force Broadcast Flag legislation through that could prevent you from recording high-def broadcasts. All this government talk makes me want to turn to C-SPAN, why aren't they in 720p yet?

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The Big Four networks appealed to Congress to stop a law that would allow cable companies to downgrade their HDTV signal to DTV. In an apparent switch from their previous stance against any converting of signals, the broadcast companies now appear willing to let cable companies convert DTV to analog after the OTA switchover for customers without digital cable converters. However, they are against allowing cable downconversion because they apparently fear cable companies would offer only DTV versions of their HDTV broadcast, and highlight cable stations high definition channels. More disturbing to us are their unspecified oppositions to what they call "broad" exceptions to the broadcast flag.

All in all, we can probably look forward to more turmoil and delays before a digital switchover occurs. Still, we don't understand why the cable companies would want to downrez HDTV to DTV and not provide HD signals, but they've done sillier things (*cough* overcompression *cough*) before.

Even though CES is over, the IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics is just starting tomorrow in Las Vegas. There, the leaders of the team that created high definition television for Zenith will be honored with the 2006 IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award. Sponsored by Sony, the award is to recognize outstanding contributions in the field of consumer electronics.

Every time you turn on your high def TV, remember to thank Wayne Bretl, Richard Citta and Wayne Luplow, without whom none of this would have been possible.

As reported by 1080eye, Congress' DTV bill would not allow cable companies to downgrade digital channels to analog broadcast, meaning cable customers with analog televisions would need to upgrade to digital set top boxes as well.

My reaction to this is it's a real non-story. The cable companies don't want to broadcast in analog, first of all it's insecure, (look at all the "special" boxes you probably get email offers for daily) and it uses a lot of bandwidth they'd love to have for more Internet, VOD and HDTV offerings. Plus it's cheaper for them when a customer wants to upgrade/downgrade service, you just flip a switch instead of sending a technician out to the home to change the filter at the pole.

Take a look at the next flyer you receive, in most areas the cable company is offering a discount over analog cable pricing in order to move digital boxes and their assortment of additional features into the home. They are more than ready to pull analog support as soon as possible. This could be reported in multiple ways, if the bill did not have such a provision, I'm sure there would be an op-ed column ranting about how Congress is in the cable companies pocket by forcing people with older TV's to get cable TV.

I think it's better that it be across the board to avoid confusion, DTV is coming, and you'll need a new digital set, or a set-top box of some kind to get television reception, period.

[Via HDBlog.net]