Sony, WB tune into digital TV
Top p'gramming offered as copy protection remains a big issue
Agreement only covers content carried over cable systems -- a sticking point that has left studios divided. The other five majors, some of whom have extended broadcast interests, want over-the-air broadcasting to be protected as well.
Sony and Warners went ahead and signed their own deal late Friday with a licensing authority for Hitachi, Intel Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial, Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. Deal permits the two studios to dictate how many times, if any, high-value programming can be copied.
The seven majors have been in tense negotiations for months with the five electronics makers, who argue there is no point in mass-producing digital TV sets if Hollywood isn't willing to offer top programming.
'Watershed event'
"Our agreements with Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures mark a watershed event in the transition to the all-digital home entertainment," said Digital Transmission Licensing Administration (DTLA) prexy Michael Ayers.
Studio execs say the other five majors are exploring a different licensing scheme with unnamed electronics manufacturers, but offered no specific details. It's also possible that those studios could eventually join Warner Bros. and Sony, even if one at a time.
"The difference among the studios reflects differing opinions as to how copy protection should be approached," one industry topper said.
Easy bootlegging?
Motion Picture Assn. of America prexy Jack Valenti has said that digital TV produces such a perfect picture that even amateurs could successfully pirate the content.
The Warners and Sony agreement greenlights encryption technology that would essentially allow digital TV sets and cable boxes to communicate with each other. If a cable operator restricted a certain Warner Bros. movie from being copied ad infinitum, the cable box and digital TV set would relay such information to each other.
The licensing agreement also includes technology preventing a cable line from being hooked up to the Internet.
The National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. (NCTA) endorsed encryption technology for set-top boxes earlier this year.
"For content providers, the creation of secure entertainment networks is key to the delivery of high-value, high-resolution motion picture content into the home," Warner exec veep for technology Christopher Cookson said.
Airing concerns
Fox Filmed Entertainment and the Walt Disney Co. have been leading proponents of copy protecting over-the-air broadcasting -- a controversial notion, since over-the-air is by its definition free and clear.
But broadcasters say they will be crippled if over-the-air programming isn't protected. A content provider will turn exclusively to cablers, leaving broadcasters out of the mix.
In the early 1980s, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that consumers have the right to record TV programs for home viewing. Consumer advocates say that decision means that over-the-air broadcasts can't be copy protected -- period.
Disney and Fox say otherwise, arguing that advancing technology has changed the boundaries.
National Assn. of Broadcasters prexy-CEO Eddie Fritts has been appealing directly to Capitol Hill pols on the issue.
Irrespective of copy protection, the transition to digital TV has other crucial hurdles to overcome.
Broadcasters are slated to go all-digital by 2006, or when 85% of American homes have a digital TV, whichever comes first.
