September 2005

A senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said that the committee would vote on digital television legislation during the week of Oct. 17­ when Congress is scheduled to return from a Columbus Day recess. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who chairs the Energy and Commerce panel's Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, also said that he and Energy and Commerce Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) would stick with a subsidy of less than $1 billion for set-top converter boxes -- which are necessary to allow viewers with analog televisions to receive digital signals over the air. By comparison, committee Democrats have pushed for a more generous subsidy plan in the range of $2.5 billion or above. Up until now, the Republicans have tended to favor limiting the subsidy by imposing an income test -- while Democrats have been skeptical of a means-testing approach. But Rep Upton said that committee members were now gravitating toward a subsidy scheme that does not include requirements that set-top box subsidies be based on an individual's income -- or dependent on whether a viewer is a subscriber to a cable or satellite system. Once the transition to digital broadcasts takes place, cable or satellite subscribers would still be able to receive programming on an analog set­ even without a converter box. Upton said the committee would likely favor a policy that allows two "vouchers" per household for the purchase of a set-top box. In an interview after a subcommittee hearing on communications issues related to Hurricane Katrina, Upton also said that a requirement that cable operators carry broadcasters' multiple digital channel streams -- so-called multicasting -- "is not going to be part of the base [DTV] bill, and the prospects for adding it as an amendment in the House are probably pretty dim."
* Stevens Sticking With 2009 Date
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6261512?display=Breaking+News...
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As New Orleanians begin to re-enter their neighborhoods, telephone and Internet service remains spotty at best, and the major service providers say they don't know when connections will be restored. Neither BellSouth Corp., the local telephone giant that also offers high-speed Internet service, nor Cox Communications, the region's biggest cable television service, have been willing to say how many of their New Orleans area customers have high-speed Internet service or how many are still waiting for it to be restored.

Amid 2005's storms, lawmakers, U.S. agencies, and state and municipal governments are seeing the need for backup tools for when terrestrial systems fail and local wireless networks are down or overwhelmed. To address such needs, satellite communication services [satcom] firms say they’re adjusting their business strategies. Even so, they said, the system needs a makeover.

Every few weeks, 15 or so Cedar Rapids, Iowa, residents huddle at the library to plot another attack on one of the country's biggest TV- station owners. Iowans for Better Local TV is taking aim at the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which operates 60 stations nationwide, including local CBS affiliate KGAN. Frustrated by what the group says is inadequate local-news and community involvement, they are noisily pressuring Sinclair. “We want to put Iowa values back into the product,” says Arron Wings, one of the group's founders.