Adelstein, Kneuer, Rehr, McSlarrow Head Senate DTV Witness List

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/12/2007 6:18:00 PM

The Senate Commerce Committee released a witness list for its Oct. 17 heairng on the digital-TV transition, with views from industry and government.

Democratic Federal Communications Commission member Jonathan Adelstein, who has been a critic of the lack of a centralized coordinating authority for DTV-education initiatives, will lead off the two-panel session, joined by John Kneuer, head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, which is overseeing the DTV-to-analog converter-box-subsidy program.

It will be the second DTV hearing in the past few weeks featuring Adelstein rather than FCC chairman Kevin Martin. Martin was asked to a Senate Special Committee on Aging last month, but he was then asked to make way for Adelstein, who was a former staffer on the committee. Martin may be otherwise engaged on the 17th (see below).

The second panel will include John Lawson, president of the Association of Public Television Stations; Kyle McSlarrow, president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and David Rehr, president of the National Association of Broadcasters.

The Hill will be alive with the sound of DTV Oct. 17. The Senate hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m., while a hearing in the House Internet & Telecommunications Subcommitee on the status of the DTV transition, also from the perspective of government and industry, is scheduled for a half-hour earlier.

A House staffer said they were sure the committee would be trying to get Martin, but had no witness list as yet. The staffer could shed no light on why the two hearings would be scheduled opposite each other.