June 2009

Digital TV Off to a Smooth Start

For most US television viewers, the transition to all-digital broadcasting amounted to a minor hiccup at most. But the industry estimated that 12 million homes had not installed the necessary converter boxes, putting them at risk of losing TV altogether. Across the country, television stations set up help lines and community organizations held events to aid confused viewers. Most stations didn't receive the flood of calls they had expected, a sign that the transition was smoother than many had predicted. Most American households now pay for television through a cable or satellite company. They were mostly unaffected by the switch, which will allow state-of-the-art wireless services and emergency communications to exist on the newly available analog spectrum space. The Federal Communications Commission's DTV help line received 317,450 calls on Friday. About 20% of the calls dealt with reception issues.

Digital TV's changing channels

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission has a number of loose ends to tie up concerning the switch to digital television, including the question of how broadcasters fulfill their public-interest obligations in the digital era. TV and radio stations receive free access to the airwaves, but to keep their licenses they're obliged to serve the public "convenience, interest or necessity." In the Supreme Court's view, that means providing "adequate coverage to public issues." But it's not clear what that means when broadcasters are supplemented by effectively unlimited outlets online for news, information and opinion. The FCC needs to finish its long-delayed rule-making on the subject, bearing in mind that five political appointees in Washington are poorly equipped to dictate how local viewers' interests are best served. A better approach would be to make sure broadcasters listen to their viewers and share their publicly subsidized megaphone with their communities in the creative and competitive ways that broadcasters are in the best position to develop.

Copps: DTV Transition Must Result in More Diverse Programming

The digital television transition is not really over, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps said Saturday. There will be a period of adjustment as we all figure out how to make this new technology work in the real world. At the same time, there may be changes from the transmission side of the equation that will make consumers' lives easier. Chairman Copps said the transition would Copps said it would not be a home run until "one, we solve all the consumer problems that are out there, and number two, very important in my mind, is to make sure that enhanced digital capacity broadcasters have available to them [goes to] good and solid public interest use." He said that beyond the technical fixes, "how is the American public going to be benefited by this." Saying broadcasters have the capacity to broadcast five or six channels, he suggested he wanted to see a multiplicity of cultures and races and ethnic groups represented. "I don't think we have done a particularly outstanding job of covering it in the analog age, but I think here is an opportunity to do it here in the digital age." He said that he recognized there needed to be a business plan, but that he thought coming up with that multicasting plan could be a way for broadcasters to give lie to reports of their decline, saying it could "rejuvenate" broadcasting.

Lawmakers Want TV Stations To Dial Down Advertising Volume

Television commercials are too loud, as most viewers know, and members of Congress want broadcasters to turn down the volume. A bill sponsored by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) would require the Federal Communications Commission to "preclude commercials from being broadcast at louder volumes than the program material they accompany." That idea is hard to resist, but it might be difficult to mandate. "Many different entities are responsible for producing and distributing the content consumers see and hear," Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) said Thursday at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications Subcommittee. Broadcasters say they are addressing the problem already. "The major television broadcast networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS (CBS) and Fox, are each, individually, implementing policies that attempt to control loud commercials," said David Donovan, president of the Association for Maximum Service Television, or MSTV, a broadcast industry trade group.

FCC July 2 Open Meeting Agenda

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps has released the tentative agenda for the July 2 FCC meeting. Big. Fun. We're talking presentations on the digital television transition and the national broadband plan; we're talkin' AM radio station's using FM translators; yes, we're talking fixed wireless services in the 6 GHz and 23 GHz bands; and that's not all -- think about on allocating spectrum in the 2.3 GHz and 5.2 GHz bands and establishing service and technical rules for operation of medical body area networks for monitoring a patient's physiological data. Rumor has it Peter Frampton will be added as an opening act.

A Senate Busy Signal for FCC Nominees

Everyone seems to like and respect Julius Genachowski, President Obama's nominee to chair the Federal Communications Commission. So why is it taking so long to get him confirmed by the Senate? It is hard to find any pocket of opposition to his nomination. Instead, his confirmation seems to be slowed by the senate's desire to approve nominees for all four open spots on the commission—two for Democrats and two for Republicans—at once. The effect of the delay is that the commission is falling behind in dealing with a number of critical issues. Congress has charged the commission with creating a national broadband policy. The commission is also likely to look at how to reform the Universal Service Fund, which taxes long distance bills to subsidize phone service to poor people and those in rural areas. There are some other internecine battles about how money and market power is divided up among various telecom companies. The commission needs to make a new plan for what to do with a block of wireless spectrum, meant to help public service agencies, that was not sold in the auctions last year. And it has to rule on the proposed merger between Embarq and CenturyTel.

Public Interest Groups Have Lots Of Questions For FCC Nominees

In a letter to Senate Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), public interest groups including the United Church of Christ, Public Knowledge and the Media Access Project raise a number of questions they's like Congress to ask nominees for seats on the Federal Communications Commission. The Senate Commerce Committee meets Tuesday to consider the nominations of Julius Genachowksi and Robert McDowell. The groups would like to hear them address questions about broadband, localism, diversity, open networks and wireless.

The Next Hard Date

[Commentary] With the digital television transition (mostly) behind the Federal Communications Commission, it now faces a February 17, 2010 deadline to deliver Congress a National Broadband Plan. The challenge will be to find a spur to deployment that does not discourage the private-sector investment that will be crucial to its success. FCC Chairman Michael Copps has said that charting the broadband course will be the most important thing the FCC has ever done, and he is not overstating the case. That's because it goes far beyond communications or entertainment or even education into every corner of the economy—from medicine to energy to just about everything else we do, from shopping to banking to finding a mate. Community is not about geography; it is about electronic connectivity. Some agencies have already made it easier and cheaper to do business online. Unless we make sure that every school and library has the Internet, and as many households as humanly possible, that will be the equivalent of taxing the least able to pay. Only a little more than half the population subscribes to an ISP, though over 90% have the option. That has to change.

How to Spend NTIA's BTOP Billions On Deployment

[Commentary] A look at how the National Telecommunications and Information Administration should spend approximately $4 billion in Recovery Act funds earmarked for broadband deployment. 1) Set aside $1 billion for best-of-breed testbed projects selected based on the level of connectivity being deployed, the number of unserved homes getting connected, the amount of local buy-in, and the potential for these models to be scalable if successful. 2) A second $1 billion should be focused on projects that can get large numbers of unserved homes online as quickly as possible. 3) Devote $ 2 billion to start wiring and interconnecting schools, libraries, and healthcare facilities with fiber.

Rural telcos seek bigger role for Universal Service in National Broadband Plan

Many familiar themes and a few new ones can be found among the comments filed by associations representing rural telcos with the Federal Communications Commission this week in response to the Commission's April notice of inquiry about a National Broadband Plan. Among the familiar themes—the idea that universal service funding should cover broadband, including the cost of providing "middle mile" connectivity to the nearest Internet point of presence. To raise the additional funding required, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies both advocate requiring Internet service providers to pay into the USF Fund. But the NTCA went a step further in its comments, recommending that Internet content providers such as Google also should pay into the fund.

Benton

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