Final DTV Table Released; Comments on Third Periodic Review of DTV Transition Extended to August 15th
Late Monday, the FCC released the Seventh Report and Order and Eighth Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making in the DTV proceeding. This Order adopts the final DTV Table of Allotments and establishes the post-transition channels for all full-power television stations in the country. This Table of Allotments is the culmination of a several-year process by television stations to elect the channel they wish to keep for future operations, and the channel they wish to return to the FCC following the switch to DTV on February 17, 2009. The FCC confirmed that this is a hard, statutory and nonwaivable deadline, and that all analog full power stations will have to cease broadcasting on that date. The deadline does not apply to low power stations and translators, however, which may continue analog broadcasting beyond that date. The FCC said it would deal with the low power TV transition to DTV at a later date.
A copy of the Order (including the new Table) is available here. Licensees are encouraged to double-check the information listed for their stations, as this Final DTV Table will become gospel for digital television stations going forward.
In addition, partially as a result of its release of the DTV Table, the FCC yesterday extended by one week the deadline for submitting comments in response to the Commission's Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) regarding the next steps in the DTV transition. Comments are now due by August 15th, and Reply Comments by August 30th. A copy of the full NPRM can be found here. Given that this proceeding will establish the details for the final push to digital broadcasting by February 17, 2009, broadcasters should be sure to review the the NPRM and consider filing comments.