Today six leading consumer, civil rights, and disability rights organizations urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate whether the lack of an automatic upgrade capability in digital televisions (DTVs) is hurting consumers, particularly those with disabilities.

In a letter to the FCC, the groups stated that the lack of such a capability could leave consumers with obsolete DTVs shortly after they are purchased due to software problems with the DTVs themselves, changes to V-Chip and emergency alerting regulations, and enhancements to accessibility technologies like captioning and video description. They noted recently announced software problems with V-Chips in televisions and reception tuners in digital converter boxes the government is subsidizing. Furthermore, the organizations believe that this issue could potentially be solved with a simple, inexpensive automatic software upgrade that allows manufacturers to correct software errors quickly and easily with little to no burden on the consumer.

Automatic update capability could also assist people with disabilities by enabling rapid dissemination of new innovations and enhancements to existing technologies for captioning, video description, and alerting. Instead of waiting for a new base of DTVs with enhanced accessibility options to disseminate across the market, an automatic update capability could allow for such technology to be distributed much faster.

"An automatic upgrade capability, like the kind we have for our personal computers, satellite and cable set top boxes, and TiVos saves consumers the hassle of having to manually download and install an update using a memory stick – where that is even possible," stated John Breyault, Research Director for the Telecommunications Research and Action Center. "For example, when it was discovered that millions of DTVs were being sold in violation of V-Chip 2.0 rules, automatic update ability could have solved the problem easily; instead all the FCC could do was fine the manufacturers."

The groups urged the FCC to issue a Notice of Inquiry to shed light on the automatic update issue, private market incentives to install the technology (Sony has done so), and whether the Commission might have to act to protect consumers. They suggested that the Commission might require such capability as part of its certification process or require clear labeling of whether equipment has the automatic update capability.

The letter was endorsed by the American Association of People with Disabilities, Consumer Federation of America, National Hispanic Media Coalition, New America Foundation, Telecommunications Research and Action Center, and World Institute on Disability. A copy of the letter may be found at http://www.trac.org/on-trac-for-2009/articles/letter-to-the-fcc.html [1].