Border Stations Don't Get DTV Waiver

Rep. Charles Gonzalez (R-TX) withdrew an amendment Wednesday that would have given U.S. TV stations within 50 miles of the Mexican border until 2015 to make the transition from analog to digital--the national hard date is expected to be in 2009. Rep Gonzalez said that with so many Mexican stations reaching into the U.S., the largely Spanish-speaking U.S. border population will tend to tune to those stations rather than make the switch to digital. That, he said, would put U.S. stations at a large competitive disadvantage, as well as put those Spanish-speaking U.S. viewers outside the U.S. emergency alert system.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6277960?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
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