The digital tuner decision. (Capital currents).

CED, October, 2002

The FCC decided that all new TV sets will have to have digital tuners, and the outraged consumer electronics industry is going straight to court. Which way will the court rule? It's very close-you can flip a coin. I think the FCC should lose, but that will happen only if the court examines the guts of a digital TV receiver. And frankly, that isn't very likely.

Here is the basis for the disagreement. The FCC took a close look at the 1962 All Channel Receiver Act (ACRA) and decided that Congress intended it to apply to digital TVs. The TV set makers disagreed, saying that Congress could not have known anything about digital TVs in 1962.

Here's what that law says: The FCC shall have the authority "to require that apparatus designed to receive television...

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