EchoStar Uses Reply Comments at FCC To ‘Underscore Its Request’ for Analog Tuner Waiver

EchoStar wants to “underscore its request” that the FCC Media Bureau “grant expeditiously” the waiver it seeks of the analog tuner requirement (see 1502270044) so it can market a new model of SlingLoaded HD Internet-enabled DVR in the U.S. without an over-the-air analog tuner, said the company in reply comments posted Friday in docket 15-47. No opposition to the petition was filed in the docket, and “the lone commenter,” CEA, “unambiguously supported grant of the waiver in order to provide consumers with access to a new, competitive, cost-effective choice in an increasingly popular category of consumer entertainment devices” (see 1503130017), EchoStar said. The waiver EchoStar seeks will give consumers "access to a new device that combines over-the-air television content with over-the-top streaming content functionality from almost any broadband-enabled multimedia platform, all in a sleek, ultra-thin, energy-efficient form factor,” the company said. Although EchoStar believes consumers won’t be “adversely impacted” by a waiver, EchoStar “has committed to the labeling, marketing, and consumer education conditions” the bureau imposed in granting past waivers, it said. “Any such obligations should be lifted if the Commission declines, as it should, to impose labeling and education requirements in the pending analog tuner rulemaking proceeding” for low-power TV, it said.