The FCC’s Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking implementing changes resulting from the Congressional delay in the DTV transition deadline and seeking comment on a number of proposed rule changes has been published in the Federal Register. Comments on the Commission’s proposed rules, including changes to the transition procedures that would restrict the ability of television stations
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FCC Issues Instructions for Stations to Deal With the Extension of the DTV Conversion Deadline
With the extension of the DTV transition deadline now passed by Congress, it’s the FCC’s turn to implement the extension and set the way in which television stations will deal with the new June 12 date for the termination of analog television. To start to implement that extension, the FCC today issued a public notice setting out the procedures to be followed by stations in dealing with the new deadline. The Public Notice allows stations that want to do so to go ahead and terminate their digital service on February 17 despite the extension, but they must file with the FCC a notice of that election by midnight on Monday, February 9. The Notice also sets out the requirement for these stations to run a significant number of announcements between now and February 17, including an increasing number of crawls in the final week before the termination date, all to tell viewers that these stations really will be turning off their analog signals on February 17 as they have been saying that they will for the last few years.
If stations do not turn off their signals on February 17, they must keep operating in analog until at least March 14, and can only terminate after giving the FCC at least 30 days prior notice. Education efforts about the new deadline date will also need to continue through the new deadline, and will need to be amended to reflect that deadline. A Davis Wright Tremaine Advisory on these requirements will be published soon – but the Public Notice provides much of the necessary information that stations need to know right now.Continue Reading FCC Issues Instructions for Stations to Deal With the Extension of the DTV Conversion Deadline
Will the House Pass the DTV Extension? – Dueling Congressional Letters Take Opposing Positions
As we wrote on Friday, the Senate has passed the Bill that would extend from February 17 to June 12 the deadline for full-power television stations to transition to digital operations. This leaves the House of Representatives to once again consider the matter – supposedly in committee on Tuesday and perhaps by vote of the full House as early as Wednesday. In preparation for that consideration, there have been conflicting letters released by Congressmen supporting the bill and those who are oppose. The opponents claim that the ability of TV stations to transition before the end date, an option that was important to Senate Republicans who unanamously supported the extension of the transition date, may not in reality exist. The supporters of the bill point to the over 1.85 million people who are on the waiting list for the $40 coupons to be applied against the cost of DTV converters to allow analog televisions to receive digital signals after the transition. What do these letters add to the debate?
The Republican Congressmen leading the charge against the delay of the transition suggest in their letter that the ability of TV stations to transition before an extended June 12 DTV deadline is largely illusory, as they imply that most stations cannot transition until the last day because of interference concerns. They have asked the FCC to immediately provide information about how many stations would be precluded from a transition until June 12 if the date is extended. From our experience, while there are some stations that need to delay their DTV transition until some other station has changed channels, we would be surprised if most stations are precluded from doing so. Many stations are simply going to continue on the channels on which they are currently operating their DTV transitional facilities. Thus, if they are already operating their DTV stations on their post-transition channel, by definition they are not suffering from any preclusive interference issues. And the vast majority of the remaining stations are planning to operate after the transition on their current analog channel which itself, in most cases, is free from interference as the analog operation would have in most cases precluded other stations on interfering channels from operating in too close a proximity to the area served by the station. We are aware of many stations ready to transition early even if the deadline is extended until June 12, and we would think that these stations had reviewed their situations before deciding to do so, and would have been aware of interference concerns in preparation for their February 17 changeover. In some cases they may have coordinated an early change with any station that would have presented an interference issue. Thus, we would be surprised if the FCC report prepared for these Congressmen finds a great number of stations that will be forced to wait until June 12 to do their digital conversion even if they are inclined to make the change early.Continue Reading Will the House Pass the DTV Extension? – Dueling Congressional Letters Take Opposing Positions