DTV Only Item On Tap For Copps' First Meeting
Acting FCC chairman focusing on DTV Transition
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/29/2009 2:10:27 PM MT
FCC acting Chairman Michael Copps has taken congressional Democrats' advice about sticking to DTV issues to heart.
The FCC released its agenda for his first meeting as chairman--Feb. 5--and it has only one item on it: "Presentations and discussion by senior agency officials as well as industry, consumer groups and others involved in the Digital Television Transition."
They will likely have a lot to talk about. It is still unclear whether the DTV transition date will move. If it does, a new education plan will need to be implemented and new logistics for helping first responders and spectrum auction stakeholders worked out. If it doesn't, there will be a lot of DTV coupon box applications stuck in the pipeline come Feb. 17 and FCC subcontractor IBM may have to put some extra shifts on at the call centers.
Copps may be confining public meetings to DTV, but he has been busy on other fronts as well.
This week he has announced John Gusti as acting chief of the International Bureau and David Furth as acting chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. Gusti has been deputy bureau chief at International. Furth has been associate bureau chief of Public Safety and Homeland Security.
Copps Wednesday was also named the FCC's Defense Commissioner, as Chairman Kevin Martin had been before him.
That means he is the point person for "homeland security, national security and emergency preparedness, and defense activities" for the commission, including representing it on interagency matters and being the Department of Homeland Security's point person at the commission.
