In July 2005, every TV sold in the United States will come equipped with an electronic circuit to detect a “broadcast flag” in the broadcast television signal. If the circuit sees the broadcast flag, the TV locks down the ability to create a high-resolution copy of any of the received programming. The stated purpose of this new system is to prevent rampant video piracy as television goes digital. The video piracy the FCC is trying to prevent with the broadcast flag is not the “Hey, did you tape last night’s episode of Dawson’s Creek?” variety. The TV and movie industries are concerned about their very lucrative overseas syndication markets.

NBC paid Warner Brothers a whopping $10 million per episode for the 18-episode final season of “Friends”. The finale episode of Friends airing this week will command $2 million per advertising minute – that’s four times more than previous episodes and right up there with Super Bowl. Unlike the Super Bowl, the final season of Friends will then enter syndication. More big bucks. Sometime soon, Warner Brothers will release the limited edition, boxed-set DVD version. Many more big bucks.

Now, imagine someone capturing each of those episodes in near-original digital form then distributing it via the broadband internet to London, Singapore, or Hong Kong the day after each U.S, broadcast. Instead of waiting months, or even years, for the syndicated Friends to reach their TV screens, international viewers can get their dose of Americana immediately, and for FREE. That’s a lot of potential revenue lost.

So, what does this broadcast flag technology change for the “average Joe” TV watcher? You’ll still be able to record shows on a VCR and pass them around the water cooler. However, if you want to record a show on your new HDTV-capable TiVo, then make high-resolution DVDs to impress your coworkers, you’ll be out of luck.

Many technologists and consumer advocates are concerned that the broadcast flag is but the first step towards more oppressive or even illegal restrictions on the consumer’s “fair use” rights. For example, a broadcast flag could tell your TV to restrict any kind of recording of the signal, which would violate your right to “time-shifting” (recording a show now to view at a later time). Another flag might tell your digital video recorder “you may not fast-forward through or skip any part of this program”, or “you certainly may not erase or skip over any of the commercials”. How about a flag that will disable your TV’s channel changer or remote once a show has begun, to prevent channel-hopping? Perhaps a flag to search your TiVo or Windows Media Center Edition PC for content that has been acquired through “unauthorized” channels, and then delete it? I don’t want to sound too “Orwellian” here, but I think you catch my drift.

Will the broadcast flag accomplish its mission? Maybe, maybe not. Remember that the program doesn’t begin until July 2005. Even though the digital flag will be included in the TV signal, TVs (or digital TV cards for computers) purchased before July 2005 won’t be required to have the hardware to detect the flag. So, older TVs will be unaffected by the flag.

Plus, the broadcast flag proposal only deals with content that’s broadcast over the airwaves. It doesn’t apply to cable or satellite TV – they’re developing their own similar copyright protection technology. As with any other digital “standards”, it’s likely that there will be some compatibility issues. And then, of course, someone will crack the code, and the cycle will begin again.

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski