We reported the ongoing efforts by the FCC to have analog sets properly labeled as part of the DTV transition. Best Buy and few others having been hit by some pretty hefty fines. Well now the other shoe has fallen. Best Buy is using the ‘no controlling authority” defense as the basis of getting out of the fines. That’s been tried before with no wins.

As Ars has reported, in mid-April the Commission proposed almost $4 million in fines to seven major retailers for “willfully and repeatedly” selling analog-only TV sets without labels that warn consumers that the devices may not work after February 17, 2009—the last day of analog broadcasting. The fined stores included the Sears-Roebuck/K-Mart group, dinged to the tune of $1.096 million; Wal-Mart, hit with a $992,000 forfeit; and CompUSA, which took the lowest penalty of $168,000.

Best Buy received a proposed fine of $280,000. FCC Enforcement Bureau agents say that they checked numerous Best Buy stores and found analog only TVs on sale without warning labels. The agency told Best Buy about the sets, then “after affording Best Buy a reasonable opportunity to respond to the first Citation,” FCC staff surveyed the stores again, only to find more unlabeled analog TVs.

So the DTV transition marches on….

Linky.

Value City and Toy’s r Us have been fined $216k and $248K respectively for failure to place stickers on analog TV sets that they won’t operate next February. You have to sell a heck of a lot of TV’s to overcome the loss of revenue from these kind of foopahs. Clearly the stores were not following the rules which at this point are pretty clear. Most of the retail industry is well aware of the requirements.

Target question is — will those fined sue if the Commission has to delay for 6 months to a year when the DTV transition blows up in their face? My other question is why has the Commission not banned the importation of analog sets and driven the fines up the food chain? These retailers are getting the TV’s from somewhere right?

Value City.
Toys R Us.

In a pilot test in Wilimington NC the primary TV stations in that market will turn off their analog signals for an agreed upon period of time. It will be interesting to know how quickly the telephone boards at the stations will light up. This is to occur on Sept. 8th. From the FCC presser –

Washington, DC – Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin today announced Wilmington, North Carolina, will be the first market to test the transition to digital
television (DTV) in advance of the nationwide transition to DTV on February 17, 2009. The commercial broadcasters serving the Wilmington television market have voluntarily agreed to turn off their analog signals at noon on September 8, 2008. Beginning at 12:00 pm on September 8, 2008, these local stations, WWAY (ABC), WSFX-TV (FOX), WECT (NBC), WILM-LP (CBS), and W51CW (Trinity roadcasting) will broadcast only digital signals to their viewers in the five North Carolina counties that comprise this television market.

Wilimington is a fairly small media market which I presume is why it was picked. But still a good count of the number of complaints will be a good indicator of how well the DTV trnasition is happening as a whole. When we get some information we will pass it on.

Linky.