November 2005

The full House passed the budget reconciliation bill 217-215 in the wee hours of Friday morning. House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Tex.) cast the last vote after former Majority Leader Tom "The Hammer" Delay pinned Barton's right arm behind his back and waltzed him down the aisle. Passing intact as part of that legislation was the Commerce Committee's DTV transition bill. That bill sets a hard date of Dec. 31, 2008, for the cut-off of analog TV service and the return of spectrum for auction, bringing billions to the treasury -- some say as much as $30 billion. But before Uncle Sam gets his hands on that money, $990 million will be set aside for a converter box subsidy to let analog-only sets receive a DTV signal after analog is cut-off on that date. The bill also contains a number of other DTV-related items, including money for first responders, a consumer education campaign and TV set labeling, and provisions for allowing cable to convert an HDTV signal to standard DTV, and DTV to analog. Now comes the hard work of reconciling that bill in conference with the already-passed Senate version, which sets aside $3 billion for a subsidy; establishes an April 7, 2009 hard date; and gives twice as much money to first responders (over a billion versus $500 million). But that is about all it does because Senate rules prevent legislating on appropriations bills.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6285138?display=Breaking+News...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)
* NAB Asks Broadcasters to Weigh In Against House DTV Bill
"Between now and when conference work begins, broadcasters should convey to Members of Congress the importance of removing the House down conversion language from the final budget package. The down conversion language is anti-consumer. Consumers who have spent thousands of dollars on high-definition DTV sets should not be deprived the benefits of their investment. Under the down conversion language, cable subscribers with high-definition sets will receive lesser quality standard definition signals."
http://www.nab.org/xert/corpcomm/newsletters/TVtoday/2005/112105/page3.asp
* Legislation headed to a House-Senate conference committee would pave the way for completing the digital television transition in 2008.
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/News/11182005_1725.htm

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John M. Higgins]
Although you may be reading about the 22% drop in revenues for the "Big Three" broadcast TV networks, remember that the 2004 numbers were inflated by Olympics coverage. Adjusting for that, the largest broadcast networks' revenues increased 3% during the quarter. Summer and early-fall prime time increased 8% to $1.3 billion, but that was chipped away by declines in late night and news.