Powell Pitches 2009 DTV Date By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/8/2004 6:24:00 PM Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell Wednesday pitched the Senate Commerce Committee on his digital-TV transition proposal to set 2009 as a hard date for return of the analog spectrum. He told the committee that would give all parties fair warning so that they could plan accordingly. The issue before the committee was the recommendation by the 9/11 Commission to speed the return of broadcast spectrum for public safety uses. A proposed bill would set the give-back date of spectrum for channels in the 700 Mhz band now used by 75 TV stations at Jan. 1, 2007. Powell argued that if Congress decided to make that a hard date, it should also set the 2009 hard date too in order to minimize the inequity of making one group of broadcasters give up their channels before the rest. ... http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA451695?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.