HD DNS and the 12-9-05 FCC report to congress regarding SHVERA ?

[waltinvt]

Since Dish may be offering the 3 remaining HD DNS soon, have any of you legal experts out there had a chance to digest the FCC's 12-9-05 report to congress and determine the likely qualification procdures.

It's a massive read and all the players appeared to have had their say but beyond the fact that we still have the existing Longley-Rice signal predictive model, I'm not sure what's been decided.

To my pea brain it looks those that can't get grade "B" "digital" signals OTA CAN receive the HD DNS from Dish regardless of whether Dish offers analog LiLs in your area.

Go here: http://www.fcc.gov/
and scroll down to:
12/9/05
Report to Congress - The Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004.
Report: Word | Acrobat
Comments (Appendix E): Part 1 - 13MB | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

 

[drdr]

Well, this is pretty technical. Here are some highlights:

"In particular, the Commission adopted rules
establishing a standardized method for measuring the strength of analog television signals on-site at
individual locations. And finally, it endorsed a method for predicting the strength of such signals that
could be used in place of actually taking measurements."

"The rules also provide for a neutral and independent entity to evaluate the
qualifications of potential testers to conduct on-site signal strength measurements in cases where a
network television station denies a subscriber’s request for a waiver of the ILLR prediction that the
viewer is “served.”"

"For DTV, the Commission assumes that the receiving
antenna is located outdoors at a height of 9 meters above ground."

"Under both the analog Grade B and digital noise-limited F(50,90) service standards, an acceptable
television picture and sound service is available at 50% of the locations for 90% of the time at locations
on the outer edge of a station’s service area."

They also quote some dubious arguments from NAB about outdoor VHF antennas and towers being equivalent to small satellite dishes. The complexity of installing a 30 foot tower seems slightly greater than putting a 20" DBS dish on the roof, but then I don't work for the federal government.

"Additionally,
NAB asserts that satellite dish antennas can only be used outdoors, usually atop a roof, and, therefore, it
would be “egregiously discriminatory” for the Commission to conclude that while satellite subscribers are
expected to rely on a rooftop antenna for their satellite reception, they cannot be expected to do the same
to pick up over-the-air signals."

The problem remains for those on the fringe of the "service area". If you are at the edge of the grade B contour, you apparently are expected to put up a high antenna with good gain. Even then, you may be out of luck in terms of reliable reception. The ILLR model is far from perfect and will not accurately predict reception at many locations. There is no substitute for measuring the actual signal received over time.

But I agree, if you are outside the digital grade B contour, then you should still be eligible for digital DNS. Whether this means you get HD DNS, I have no idea. Many people conflate digital with HDTV. The FCC doesn't seem to care whether stations are broadcasting SD or HD on their digital channel as long as they stay within their assigned frequencies. I would guess that this means that you can get digital DNS. Whether the DBS providers retransmit this as HD or SD would have to be negiotated between the provider and the distant network station. This is just guesswork on my part, though.

 

[waltinvt]

Well, this is pretty technical. Here are some highlights:

"In particular, the Commission adopted rules
establishing a standardized method for measuring the strength of analog television signals on-site at
individual locations. And finally, it endorsed a method for predicting the strength of such signals that
could be used in place of actually taking measurements."

"The rules also provide for a neutral and independent entity to evaluate the
qualifications of potential testers to conduct on-site signal strength measurements in cases where a
network television station denies a subscriber’s request for a waiver of the ILLR prediction that the
viewer is “served.”"

"For DTV, the Commission assumes that the receiving
antenna is located outdoors at a height of 9 meters above ground."

"Under both the analog Grade B and digital noise-limited F(50,90) service standards, an acceptable
television picture and sound service is available at 50% of the locations for 90% of the time at locations
on the outer edge of a station’s service area."

They also quote some dubious arguments from NAB about outdoor VHF antennas and towers being equivalent to small satellite dishes. The complexity of installing a 30 foot tower seems slightly greater than putting a 20" DBS dish on the roof, but then I don't work for the federal government.

"Additionally,
NAB asserts that satellite dish antennas can only be used outdoors, usually atop a roof, and, therefore, it
would be “egregiously discriminatory” for the Commission to conclude that while satellite subscribers are
expected to rely on a rooftop antenna for their satellite reception, they cannot be expected to do the same
to pick up over-the-air signals."

The problem remains for those on the fringe of the "service area". If you are at the edge of the grade B contour, you apparently are expected to put up a high antenna with good gain. Even then, you may be out of luck in terms of reliable reception. The ILLR model is far from perfect and will not accurately predict reception at many locations. There is no substitute for measuring the actual signal received over time.

But I agree, if you are outside the digital grade B contour, then you should still be eligible for digital DNS. Whether this means you get HD DNS, I have no idea. Many people conflate digital with HDTV. The FCC doesn't seem to care whether stations are broadcasting SD or HD on their digital channel as long as they stay within their assigned frequencies. I would guess that this means that you can get digital DNS. Whether the DBS providers retransmit this as HD or SD would have to be negiotated between the provider and the distant network station. This is just guesswork on my part, though.

Well thanks for the quick and concise report. It will be interresting to see what others think too. I agree with the digital / HD comment but in the case of the national nets, most of their prime time programming on their digital feeds is in HD which is why we often refer to them as the HD DNS.

I think the main point is that they're making some distinctions between digital and analog and more clearly saying that just because you can get analog locals from DBS doesn't mean you can't get the distnat digital feeds from DBS.

Personally I think this is what "E" has been waiting for and why they didn't follow "D" when they started providing digital DNS last year.

A lot of local affiliates have been hiding behind the ambiguity of SHVERA for over a year but now they're going to have to start getting a digital signal to the roof top or loose viewers to satellite.

 

[drdr]

Many local stations have full power analog signals and low power digital signals, so maybe they could lose viewers to DNS because of this.

On the other hand, I could imaging a dispute involving DNS availability and retransmission agreements with local stations (you can't have our analog signal if you provide digital DNS in our market?)

 

[waltinvt]

Many local stations have full power analog signals and low power digital signals, so maybe they could lose viewers to DNS because of this.

On the other hand, I could imaging a dispute involving DNS availability and retransmission agreements with local stations (you can't have our analog signal if you provide digital DNS in our market?)

Never happen, their (true) market area is increased greatly by DBS providing analog LiLs. Plus the minute they took them away from satellite, everyone that couldn't get a grade "B" signal would again be entitled to the analog DNS again under the (still) existing Shivera (SHIVA). Besides, the national networks WANT viewers to receive a good high def signal and they're tired of a lot of these affiliates dragging their feet getting it to the viewer. The nationals are the copywrite owners and affiliate contract negotiations are going to be a bear as they come up for renewal.