Studios Want Decision From FCC On Cable Waiver For HD Movies

Movie studios are pushing the Federal Communications Commission to make a decision on granting them a waiver that would allow them to deliver high-definition, digital versions of movies to cable subscribers in advance of their DVD release, a move that concerns independent producers and fair use activists. Fair use fans Public Knowledge and other public-interest groups early on asked the FCC to deny the waiver, saying it would "frustrate consumer expectations regarding their home-theater equipment and will give movie studios unprecedented and undesirable control over the design and use of home electronics equipment." Also opposed is the Independent Film & Television Alliance, which said not long after the waiver request was made that allowing the major studios to "remotely shut off a particular output on a program-by-program basis" would harm program diversity by diminishing access to independent films like those of their members. Theater owners are also concerned that the studios are shortening their distribution windows and migrating their movies to other distribution platforms -- like cable and satellite--that they can more easily control.