WASHINGTON-The completion of the transition to digital TV could be associated with March Madness if the date in the just-released draft of the Senate DTV bill becomes law.
Hoping to capitalize on the triple-play TV buying season of Christmas, the Super Bowl and the NCAA basketball championships-known as March Madness-the Senate draft sets the DTV hard date at April 7, 2009.
In 1997, Congress said that in 2007, broadcasters would have to return the extra 6 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band that was 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 encouraged widely by the wireless industry, which wants access to some of the spectrum.
Congress is expected to consider a hard date for the DTV transition as part of the 2006 budget reconciliation process. Due to the focus on Hurricane Katrina, the budget reconciliation process, which usually occurs in September, was delayed by a month. The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to begin its process Wednesday afternoon at a markup that will also include 911 and emergency alert bills. The House is expected to consider its proposal, which currently sets the hard date at Jan. 1, 2009, the next week.
“This is likely to be the most significant auction-and one of the most significant government actions affecting communications networks-since the government auctioned PCS spectrum in 1994-95,” said Legg Mason in a research note sent this morning.
There likely will be two bills passed by Congress dealing with the DTV transition, one that establishes a hard date and sets a timetable for auctioning the spectrum and one that deals with related issues not specifically tied to the budget.
