House Sets DTV-Converter-Box Hearing

House Government Reform and Oversight Committee looking into DTV-coupon-program management.

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/15/2008 6:10:00 PM

The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee will hold a hearing this week looking into the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's handling of the digital-TV-to-analog converter-box-coupon program, as well as concerns about getting DTV-transition information to minority communities.

The hearing -- which will be in the Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization and Procurement -- will be held July 18 at a Brooklyn community center in the district of House Energy & Commerce Committee member and subcommittee chair Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), who called for the hearing.

Energy & Commerce Committee chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Telecommunications Subcommittee chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) last week accused the NTIA of mismanaging the program by not adequately planning for reissuing expired coupons (they expire within 90 days). The NTIA countered that it took that into account.

Oversight Committee staff director Mike McCarthy said Brooklyn was also chosen because it has a high population of over-the-air viewers.

He added that the hearing was driven in part by concerns over management of the coupon program, as well as Townes' concerns about outreach and because Brooklyn will be "more heavily impacted by the switch to digital than some other places in the country."

Witnesses will include NTIA acting director Meredith Attwell Baker, a yet-to-be named Federal Communications Commission representative, WABC-TV news anchor Bill Ritter (testifying on behalf of the National Association of Broadcasters) and a representative from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, which is concerned about outreach to the Spanish community and other minority communities.