Capps Bill Would Postpone Analog Recovery
Would Require Market-by-Market Plan for Service Until March 2009
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 9/22/2008 11:34:00 AM EDT
Washington—Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) is close to introducing the first House bill that would postpone the federal government’s recovery of all analog TV spectrum on Feb. 17, 2009.
Capps, a member the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would require the Federal Communications Commission to develop a market-by-market plan to make analog TV service available until March 3, 2009.
The bill would give the FCC latitude to require at least one analog TV station per-market to stay on the air for an additional two weeks. In some cases, the FCC could allow one powerful analog TV station to serve two adjacent markets.
The FCC’s program, to be drafted no later than Jan.15, 2009, would ensure that the analog station transmitted emergency information as well information about the digital TV transition. Capps, whose district is 41% Hispanic, would mandate DTV transition information be broadcast in both English and Spanish.
"It's an intriguing idea. Our TV board will be discussing it in the very near future," said National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton.
Cable operators would not be required to carry the analog stations under Capps' bill. Cable operators are already required by the FCC to make the signals of digital TV stations that demand carriage viewable in analog and digital cable homes after Feb. 17.
Under current law, all 1,756 full-power TV stations need to surrender their analog TV licenses on Feb. 17 and rely exclusively on their digital signals.
Capps' bill, called the Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act (SAFER ACT), would alter that scheme by providing a lifeline of critical information to consumers who had failed to prepare properly for digital-only broadcasting.
To some extent, Capps’ bill is modeled after the DTV transition test that occurred in Wilmington, N.C. on Sept. 8. The five participating commercial TV stations are airing DTV transition information, but not regular programming, on their analog channels until Sept. 30.
Without Capps' bill, TV stations in the other 209 markets would need to cease analog broadcasting on Feb. 17 and couldn’t replicate the post-transition public awareness effort use in Wilmington.
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Delay the switch by 6 months.
The reality is we are entering into what is close to the 2nd great depression. The reality is that all of our citizens OWN the airwaves and even though many of the people commenting here can afford DTV converts, cable and satellite, there remain many on the lower income sector of our economy who cannot.
Cutting off television to these people during these upcoming economic times is as bad as cutting off phone service or radio reception. They need to be informed, entertained, and kept in the loop of America.
Cut them off and you cut off their ability to share in information, consolation, and support.
People with their Hi Def TVs and cable, high speed internet, and satellite complain that "you snooze you loose."
Excuse me, the American public OWNS the airwaves, and there is nothing the in the constitution that causes a citizen to lose their rights by being lower income, slow, or technically behind the times.
If you do not delay the transition, Congress, you are going to have to flip back on all of those analog transmitters a week or two into March. And that will REALLY be expensive and confusing, wont it?
There is NOTHING to lose. Those now enjoying DTV will see no slow-down in programming or quality. So, they have no reason to complain.
The only ones who will lose power are the broadcasters forced to keep their analog transmissions going, and the telecoms chomping at the bit to sell us new electronic media over these frequencies.
But, guess what? If they don't like using the American Citizen's airwaves, they should get out of the business or move to a non-democratic country.
As an HD producer and also a citizen, I implore Congress to delay the switch. Or, you are going to have a mess of people mad as hell in already deadly times.
Give me a break. We cannot be "me me me" about this. This is not a competition. Access to the airwaves is a fundamental right -- not a YUPPY COMPETITION.
"If the DTV conversion goes on schedule, the FCC and Congress had better lock their doors at midnight." --- quote from a DTV pioneer.
