House Working on Bill to Move DTV Date
Hill source says Energy & Commerce Committee looking to postpone Feb. 17 DTV transition, free up money for converter-box coupons
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/13/2009 1:16:00 PM
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According to a Hill source familiar with the committee's thinking, the bill drafted by House Energy & Commerce member Ed Markey (D-Mass.) to free up money for DTV-to-analog converter box coupons is no longer an option.
The source said the committee is now working on legislation to free up more money for the program and move the date, having concluded that there was not enough time to free up coupon distribution sufficiently to help the almost 2 million requests now on a government waiting list.
"Basically the ADA fix bill has become a moot issue," the aide said. "Now that a couple days have transpired, by the time it passes the Senate and gets to the president’s desk, the backlog on the waiting list means that the coupons wouldn't arrive by the 17th of February”—the day when all high-power analog signals are to be shut off.
The "ADA fix" was a reference to the bill's waiving of law that required the National Telecommunications & Information Administration to wait until coupons had expired to send out more after it had reached its funding ceiling. Committee efforts will now focus on getting more money for coupons and moving the date back.
The Senate is already working on a bill to move the date. An aide to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who is spearheading that effort, had no updates on its progress at press time, but Rockefeller began work with the Obama transition team on the bill last week.
While Rockefeller has said he supports moving the date, Markey along with Energy & Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and new Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-Va.) have not yet joined him in endorsing the move. All have said it is on the table for consideration and all agree there are problems with the transition that need immediate attention.
The President-elect called for moving back the DTV transition date last week, citing the coupon box waiting list and a general lack of funds for DTV education.
Tom Wheeler, who is heading the FCC agency review team for the transition, elaborated upon that Tuesday in an interview for future broadcast on C-SPAN, saying that he recommended the delay in part because the groundwork hadn't been properly laid for the transition in the time since the DTV hard date was set in 2005.
A committee spokesperson had not returned a call for comment at press time.
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Is there no one guiding congress from the broadcasters side. The broadcasters have been working toward the transition to digital for 10 plus years. With the limited number of tower crews, transmitter, antenna and tower manafacturers this is going to turn into a night mare. It is not as simple as fliping a switch; many stations are required to switch digital channels; many analog stations tower lease will expire in February.
Merle Thomas - 1/15/2009 11:41:00 AM EST -
YESSS!!! Let's do this on schedule and the stragglers will do what they need to do if they want to watch free TV after the analog cut-off. END OF STORY!
Greg Oen - 1/14/2009 6:32:00 PM EST -
It's more like 10+ million, for starters. Secondly, due to the "cliff effect" of DTV signals, many viewers, especially those in rural areas or in cities with many tall buildings, may find that they can't get DTV service -- even if they've done everything they should have. Jenkins' attitude is commonplace; he can't admit that the officials and execs in charge of this program blew it -- along with a lot of money.
Why the urgency? Let's get this right and not disenfranchise millions of loyal viewers. Or is the rush because some people know the system is faulty, and will drive viewers of "free" TV to pay TV? Could the flaws in the system be allowed to persist due to that effect -- beneficial to cable, satellite and fiber TV?
Also, has anyone asked why the gov't has spent billions on this program. Is it just to free up spectrum -- or are there surveillance and control applications built into the DTV specs? It is an "addressable" system, in that the boxes and tuners must "request" frequencies, just as a computer connected to the internet must request pages. Is there a remote capability built into DTV that allows remote external control of channels and programming by those with access to the "address" of certain sets or converter boxes? Surely some readers here know the answer...
Adam Smith - 1/14/2009 4:29:00 PM EST -
Has the government considered all of the efforts that cable operators, local broadcasters, and other organizations have done to educate viewers on the DTV transition?
-Millions of dollars spent over the past 14 months in DTV PSA production and on-air schedules (especially the local tv people giving up precious airtime in an era of 'every nickel counts')
-All of the local news operations who have pounded the message in DAY AFTER DAY in each of their newscasts in order to let the viewers know what's going to happen on 2/17.
-The 100 day Countdown Clock that stations and networks are running - everyone is going to look really silly when it goes from 12 days up to 150 days in early feb - TALK ABOUT LOSING CREDIBILITY.
-Plus, the major factor that local broadcasters are talking about is how they have budgeted in 2009 to have an no analog power after 2/17. (if you don't know, it costs every local station 15k-25k a month to power their analog towers) We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars that local broadcasters DO NOT HAVE to power their analog towers after 2/17. Sounds like the layoff train is heating up again - I thought the new administration was focused on SAVING and CREATING jobs - sheesh!
BOTTOM LINE - The gov't wants to bend over backwards for maybe 2 million people (trust me, more than half of the people on the coupon waiting list have enough money to buy a $40 DTV box, their just frugal and want to save some money) when hundreds of millionas of Americans have done everything we've asked them to do when it comes to being ready for the DTV transition.
Look at the Wilmington, NC test - the people who weren't ready at the switch (the "procrastinators") got up and went to walmart or radio shack and bought a DTV box the next day... everything was good in less than a week. The same thing will happen across the rest of the country.
Wake up commerce committee! Postponing DTV should be the last option for your lack of preparation.
What say you?
Marty Jenkins - 1/14/2009 9:12:00 AM EST
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