Retailers Put on Notice About Analog TV Warnings Posted by Bob at 06/08/07 10:07 AM

Consumers should take some comfort from a couple of actions by the Federal Communications Commission this week on the looming transtition to digital television, scheduled for February 2009.

First, the agency warned top electronic retailers -- including Kmart, Best Buy, Radio Shack, Circuit City and CompUSA -- they were doing a lousy job of displaying required notices to consumers on analog television sets they are selling. Such notices were supposed to be displayed near or on any analog television sets offered for sale after May 25th. Those analog sets will not be able to pick up free, over-the-air television signals when broadcasters go completely digital in February 2009, unless they are connected to a signal conversion box.

Variety has a good article on the situation.

We find it heartening that the FCC is at least checking to make sure retailers are complying with the analog warning notices, although we think some stiff fines might have done an ever better job of getting the attention of retailers choosing to ignore the law. We are hopeful the FCC will stay on the case and will replace those warnings with hefty fines if retailers don't properly display the analog notices.

On a related note, the FCC did slap heavy fines on a couple of companies for shipping television sets without digital tuners. All televisions manufactured after March of this year are supposed to contain digital tuners.

The FCC proposed a fine of nearly $2.9 million against a company named Syntax-Brillian for importing more than 72,000 television sets without the required digital tuners. A company called Regent USA is facing a $64,000 for shipping nearly 1,200 non-compliant television sets.

You can read the FCC complaint against Syntax-Brillian by clicking here and the complaint against Regent USA by clicking here. You can read a statement about the fines from FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein by clicking here.

We have put together a comprehensive web page on the transition to digital television, which you can find here.

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