DTV Transition Top of Mind for House, Senate

Key Staffers Appear at National Association of Broadcasters' State Leadership Conference

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/26/2008 2:18:00 PM

Oversight of the digital-TV transition will dominate the broadcast legislative agenda in both the House and Senate, according to key staffers from both houses and both sides of the aisle.

That message was delivered to a roomful of broadcasters--organizers estimated it at at about 600--attending the National Association of Broadcasters' State Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. Those broadcasters are in town to meet with Federal Communications Commission officials and legislators.

Jessica Rosenworcel, senior counsel on the Senate Commerce Committee, said the good news was that, according to an NAB survey, 79% of respondents knew about the transition. The bad news, she added, was that a Consumer Reports survey found that 74% of the people who knew about it had some of the information wrong.

She called the latter a troubling statistic and suggested that making sure the message was right and that viewers got the information -- what kind of converter boxes they would need in time -- would be the focus of a lot of legislative energy.

One concern was viewers who might not know that low-power TV stations and translators -- which boost TV stations' signals to remote areas -- would not be making the digital switch at the same time. She pointed out that of the 7,300 licensed TV stations, only 1,800 are full-power and will have to make the transition to DTV by Feb. 17, 2009, adding that this leaves "an awful lot of stations still in analog."

Senate Commerce Committee Republican staff director Kristine Kurth agreed, saying that it was key for broadcasters to let viewers know if they are receiving signals from a low-power or a translator.

Amy Levine, senior counsel on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, added that the information needed to be accurate, too, saying she was troubled by some public-service announcements that low-power stations ran telling viewers that the government was running a scam and that they needed converter boxes that had both analog and digital tuners.

The Community Broadcasters Association has been pushing for the dual tuners. The government-approved DTV-to-analog converter boxes were not allowed to have analog tuners. They could have a pass-through function that allowed the receipt of analog signals, as well as digital signals, although only four government-approved models currently do.

Kurth said retailers should also be educated about the low-power and translator issues, and perhaps if they were, they would be sure to have at least one model on hand that passed through the analog signals to meet the anticipated demand.

There were some encouraging words for broadcasters on the so-called white-spaces issue. The FCC is currently in a second round of testing on unlicensed wireless devices like laptops and so-called smart radios that would use the spaces between DTV channels. Broadcasters would prefer that the unlicensed devices not be allowed to use the band -- they do not oppose licensed devices that can be better controlled -- fearing interference with their DTV signals.

Neil Fried, Republican senior counsel on House Energy & Commerce, said he was concerned about adding a complicating factor to the DTV transition, and that the FCC testing -- currently in the lab -- needed to be in the real world.

Levine added that House Energy & Commerce Committee chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) was also concerned about a device that malfunctioned in the FCC's first round of testing and interfered with DTV signals, saying, “What if someone drops a device? If the result is that it breaks, that's a problem.” She agreed there needed to be “real-world field testing," as did the other panelists, and that the FCC should not approve the devices if they were found to interfere with DTV signals.

Also on the legislative agenda will be the 700-megahertz spectrum auction currently winding down at the FCC, they said, as well as reforming the FCC processes. Kurth and Rosenworcel agreed that both sides were looking at ways to make reform the commission by making it more "streamlined" (Kurth) and more responsive to the public (Rosenworcel), calling it a bipartisan effort.

Rosenworcel also said her side would look at the issue of localism. The FCC adopted a number of proposals, including creating community advisory boards and reporting requirements. Rosenworcel praised those efforts and said localism is what made them special (a "here, here" came from the audience for punctuation), and adding that congressional oversight would not necessarily translate to "onerous new burdens" (applause).

Not on the agenda in the near term were any indecency-related bills. All agreed that the Hill would wait and see what happens in the courts.

The Supreme Court may decide on Friday whether or not to hear the appeal of the FCC's profanity ruling against Fox, which was remanded by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals as arbitrary and capricious. The Third Circuit has yet to weigh in on Janet Jackson, and the FCC faces further court action over nudity fines for ABC and Fox stations.