WASHINGTON-Public safety remains committed to the idea of a hard 2007 give-back date for TV broadcasters to relinquish their analog spectrum. But if that is not realistic, the public-safety community would support an FCC Media Bureau staff proposal that would make spectrum available in 2009, according to a letter sent Thursday by the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials.
“APCO and many others continue to urge Congress to require TV stations that block public-safety allocations to relinquish their channels no later than Dec. 31, 2006. We also support the FCC’s Media Bureau’s recommendation that the Federal Communications Commission change its ‘must-carry’ rules to ensure that the 85-percent threshold is met as of Jan. 1, 2009, though we suggest an earlier date for channels 60-69. The Media Bureau’s proposal would be a major step forward, assuming it provides state and local governments with sufficient certainty to begin the planning, funding and construction process upon adoption of the rule change,” said APCO President Vincent Stile in a letter to the House telecommunications subcommittee.
The House telecom subcommittee is set to hold a hearing Wednesday on the digital TV transition focusing on the Media Bureau plan.
The proposal aims to get at the current 85-percent threshold, which says that broadcasters must give back their analog spectrum Jan. 1, 2007, or when 85 percent of the homes in their license areas can receive digital signals, whichever is later.
The current estimates are that it will be well into the next decade before most markets reach that threshold if the FCC counts homes with either only DTVs or digital set-top boxes.
The Media Bureau proposal gets at the heart of the relationship between broadcasters and cable operators. It would allow broadcasters in October 2008 to elect to have their entire digital signals carried by cable operators instead of the current rule, which requires cable operators to carry only broadcasters’ analog signals. The cable company then would choose whether to broadcast only in digital and require its customers to obtain (either through purchase or giveaway) a digital set-top box or to download the broadcaster’s digital signal into an analog signal.
Either way, the broadcaster would be broadcasting in digital and “85 percent” of the homes in its market would be capable of receiving a digital signal, and the broadcaster would be required to give back its analog signal as of Jan. 1, 2009.
Public safety is anxiously waiting for the broadcasters to leave the band because Congress said in 1997 that the FCC had to set aside 24 megahertz of spectrum for its use, and some of the spectrum must be used to create an interoperable system.
Ken Ferree, chief of the FCC’s Media Bureau, told reporters in April that he has been briefing Capitol Hill but Wednesday’s hearing will be the first time lawmakers will be able to have a public give and take regarding the plan. Ferree said there have been some concerns expressed privately about the approximately 15 percent of Americans who receive TV signals only from free over-the-air broadcasting and who may face a financial burden with the transition to DTV.
