The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a Federal Communications Commission ruling requiring that all TVs with 13-inch screens or larger must be equipped with a digital tuner by July 2007.

The FCC rule had been challenged by the Consumer Electronics Association, which represents major manufacturers including Zenith and Sony. The CEA said that the rule was unnecessary for two main reasons; firstly, that it would make sets more expensive, and secondly that subscribers to digital cable or digital satellite services would not need the tuners. The FCC rule is designed to provide 'plug-and-play' functionality, in that someone can buy a TV, plug it into their antenna socket, and watch local free-to-air digital terrestrial television broadcasts.

The Court sided with the FCC ruling, saying that the consumer electronics industry was not moving fast enough to incorporate digital tuners into sets on its own. The U.S. Congress has set a target date of December 2006 for analogue switch-off.

The decision pleased the National Association of Broadcasters:

"The court's decision today upholding the FCC's DTV tuner requirement is a milestone towards completing the DTV transition. Consumers buying TV sets will know that the receivers they buy will continue to receive all broadcast signals, even as broadcasting changes to digital. Chairman Powell and the FCC deserve congratulations for their strong leadership in advancing the digital transition."