Broadcasters Meet With FCC On Spectrum

Television broadcasters have begun making their opposition to the Federal Communications Commission's cash-for-spectrum plan known in visits with FCC officials. The plan calls for broadcasters to swap most of their spectrum for a share of the proceeds that would come from the auctioning of the spectrum to wireless broadband providers. TV stations would keep just enough bandwidth to continue broadcasting a single standard definition (SD) channel. The broadcasters said they questioned an assertion by an FCC official that most over-the-air service in a market could be provided in an SD format by a single digital channel. And they suggested that they needed to hang on to their spectrum so they could continue broadcasting HDTV and mobile digital television.