Markey Says Push For Digital Standard Was Game-Changer

Former House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) says he expects there to be some "confusion and dislocation" in the switchover June 12, but added that it could and would have been much worse had not Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps appeared on the scene to quarterback the late-game comeback drive to digital. He also said the Obama administration was right to move the date, pointing to the over 3.5 million households that were able to prepare for the switch. The game-changing moment, he said, came when the FCC decided to go with a digital rather than an analog standard--the first digital switch, as it were--and said that came after he "aggressively advocated for such a switch and successfully convinced the FCC in 1990 to begin pursuing a digital standard." Rep Markey chaired the first House hearing on digital television in 1987.