FCC Has Final DTV Transition Checkup Meeting

The Federal Communications Commission's monthly meeting for June focused on, what else, the transition to digital-only television broadcasting on June 12. The FCC says it is far readier than it would have been for the Feb. 17 date, but that concerns remain. "This is not a drill," said Acting Chairman Michael Copps, who said there would be no delaying this date, though he also said had Congress and the President not moved the date initially, the transition education effort would have been a "debacle that makes New Coke look like marketing genius." Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, who is heading up the coupon box program at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said she believed there would be enough money to send out the DTV-to-analog converter box coupons, while Christopher McLean of the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition, said there would be enough boxes on store shelves. In fact, he said there would likely be an overall surplus. But there will be disruptions, said FCC acting Chairman Michael Copps, saying that the FCC could not accomplish in four months what should have been done in the past four years.