[opendtv] News: Broadcasters Push DTV-Decision Delay

Broadcasters Push DTV-Decision Delay 

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/22/2004 12:00:00 PM

Opponents of the Federal Communications Commission's so-called Ferree 
plan for speeding the digital transition have gotten organized and 
are taking their case to the Hill.

The National Association of Broadcasters, ABC and CBS affiliate 
groups, minority and rural representatives and some broadcast unions 
have formed the Coalition for a Smart Digital TV Transition. Their 
goal: to keep the FCC from "rushing" a decision on the digital-TV 
transition. The groups plan to officially announce the coalition's 
formation Tuesday.

  "The Coalition is united in asking the FCC not to act in December 
2004, before the American public can weigh in on its plan," the group 
told a gathering of key Hill staffers Monday.

  Broadcasters have pitched an alternative plan that would require 
cable to insure its subscribers can get a digital picture if 
broadcasters are delivering a digital signal, and have also been 
pushing for guaranteed carriage of not only their replicated analog 
signal, but any other free multicast service--data, news, 
weather--they can fit into their digital channel allotment.

  "While the FCC looks to potentially force adoption of a complicated 
and unworkable digital transition plan, most Americans still don't 
understand what digital television is, let alone that they'll have to 
buy a new TV to continue watching their local news programs," the 
coalition asserts. Technically, they would only have to buy a 
converter box to continue receiving a signal with their old sets, but 
it would be analog, not digital.

Some members of Congress have advocated setting aside money from 
spectrum auctions to subsidize those boxes, while the administration 
has instead argued for a tax on spectrum "squatters" after 2006 to 
help fund the effort.

  But neither is set in stone and the coalition wants there to be a 
funding mechanism in place before any plan is approved. Manny 
Mirabal, Hispanic Technology & Telecommunications Partnership, says 
that minority populations will be particularly hard hit, given that 
they tend to have more secondary sets, watch more TV, have less money 
to pay for new technology and less access to alternate delivery 
systems like cable and satellite.

  "We're not into delay for delay's sake," he says, but many issues 
need to be resolved first.

  The FCC's current plan, named after Media Bureau Chief Ken Feree, 
would allow digital signals converted to analog by cable systems to 
count as digital, which broadcasters argue deprives viewers of the 
great pictures and interactivity that are DTV's biggest selling 
points. That definition of digital would allow analog spectrum to be 
returned to the FCC by 2009. Without it, says Powell, the transition 
could take decades.

  The FCC is concerned with speeding the return of analog spectrum for 
other uses, including emergency communications.

  Scheduled to make their case at a noon meeting Monday on the Hill 
were Jon Blake, General Counsel, NBC and CBS Affiliate Groups; 
Quinton Robinson, The Alliance for Rural Television; Dan Mahoney, 
National Association of Broadcast Employees and 
Technicians-Communications/Workers of America; John Orlando, 
Executive Vice President, Government Relations, National Association 
of Broadcasters; and Manny Mirabal, Hispanic Technology & 
Telecommunications Partnership.







 
 
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