WASHINGTON-The transition to digital TV will be completed Jan. 1, 2009, according to a draft bill released by the House Commerce Committee Republicans.
“The current 85-percent penetration test guarantees only confusion and uncertainty. It is far wiser to plan for the coming change than to sit back and wait for TV sets to go dark,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Commerce Committee. “The benefits of adopting a date certain are numerous and significant. For years, our first responders have had to make do with antiquated radio equipment while waiting for the airwaves they were promised. This bill will make it easier for these public servants to catch criminals, fight fires and save lives. This spectrum will also raise billions of dollars at auction, helping us further reduce the federal deficit.”
In 1997, Congress said that in 2007, broadcasters would have to return the extra 6 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band given to TV broadcasters to facilitate the DTV transition. But TV broadcasters could keep the spectrum if more than 15 percent of the homes in their viewing areas could not receive digital signals. Removing the caveat has become known as establishing a hard date and has been widely encouraged by the wireless industry, which wants access to some of the spectrum.
When the House Commerce Committee was asked to find $4.8 billion to help Congress meet its budget numbers, the leadership began to negotiate in earnest on a DTV hard-date bill.
“If history is any guide, the FCC starts to look more and more like a bank,” said one congressional staffer who declined to be named.
The House telecommunications subcommittee will examine the Digital TV Transition Act of 2005 Thursday.
The DTV bill would also require TV manufacturers to place warning labels on analog-only sets and the FCC to begin a consumer-education campaign.
Surprisingly, the bill does not include a set-top box subsidy for consumers who have not purchased either a DTV set or who receive their TV signals from satellite or cable.
Barton made news last year when he said he wants to consider a “Berlin” subsidy to help complete the DTV transition. When Berlin switched to DTV, the government subsidized the purchases of set-top boxes for low-income TV viewers who had not purchased DTVs.
