OK, I'm not talking about THAT NATO, but rather the other NATO - the National Association of Theater Owners.
In a recent gathering of in Las Vegas, theater owners from all over the U.S. got together to look at the upcoming summer movie lineup and ways to battle falling movie theater attendance.
The controversial one that has been thrown around lately, is to block cellphone signals as one way to improve the customers viewing experience, as the over 6,000 members of NATO voted to authorize the board to take measures at getting the federal laws changed which at this time prevent them from using the needed equipment that would jam cellphones.
My reference to France is actually true in this context, as it recently changed its laws to allow movie theaters to use the jamming technology.
"We have an issue with rude patron behavior," says John Fithian, president of NATO. "Cellphones going off in theaters is the most pronounced problem," he says, adding that a recent NATO survey of theatergoers showed that nearly 80 percent favored some form of cellphone jamming. "The overwhelming majority of our own members support the idea as well."
That 80 percent number is a large one to ignore by anybody. The legislature will take that into account when they eventually are forced to look at the issue.
Currently in the U.S., cellphone-jamming equipment is illegal to use, even for the police and fire departments.
Of course the CTIA, the cellular industry's national trade group opposes it ferociously:
"We're vehemently opposed for the simple reason that it's no one's right or prerogative to deny emergency communications to go through," says John Walls, CTIA vice president of public affairs. "That's why jamming is illegal. These are the public airwaves - they are for everyone, and everyone has a right to use them."
These types of comments gives you some insight into how these types of corporate battles are fought. On the side of the CTIA, they are fighting in the name of "emergency communications" getting through. Of course we are reminded by John Walls that it is the reason for it being illegal. Then he appeals to the rights of the people as he tells us that they are "public" airwaves and all have the right to use them.
Others, like Howard Melamed of CellAntenna, added "Jamming is a weapon that should only be used against illegal activities."
You can tell who is on the defensive here as the buzz words being used to sway public opinion are being used like "emergency communications," "rights," "illegal" and "weapon."
The way these words are being thrown around you'd think we had just been invaded or that some natural catastrophe had occurred where public safety had broken down.
These are the types of words that are used when the war is really to make public opinion go your way.
Recently they also blamed the poor quality of movies as being another reason attendance is down. On the other side of things, the theater owners need to take a good hard look at what is really happening in the industry. While all of this can possibly be true, I tend to think that the real reason is the technological advances that are offering an enormous variety of options that people can do for entertainment. To ignore that and look at secondary issues, may be a bigger problem for theater owners than the rest combined
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