May 2006

May 18, 2006

Kevin J. Martin
Chairman
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

Dear Chairman Martin,

On March 8, 2005, the Commission announced the appointment of thirty-five (35) members to its Consumer Advisory Committee. On May 26, 2005, you appointed twenty additional members to the Committee. On November 18, in one of our first official acts, the Committee adopted, nearly unanimously, the attached recommendation on the “Consumer Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters.” The recommendation calls on the Commission to issue reports and orders in the following matters within six months of the receipt of the recommendation:

Public Interest Obligations of TV broadcast Licensees (MM Docket No. 99–360);
Standardized and Enhanced Disclosure Requirements for Television Broadcast Licensee Public Interest Obligations (MM 20 Docket No. 00–168))

To date, the Committee has received no communication from the Commission on the status of this recommendation.

In reviewing the Committee’s charter, we note we are to report to the Chairman. On February 16, 2006, the Benton Foundation, a member of the CAC, delivered the attached recommendation to your office, but has received no reply. We write today to ask you:

* What is the status of the Committee’s recommendation regarding the obligations of digital television broadcasters?

* When do you foresee bringing clarity to the obligations of digital television broadcasters?

* In general, when the Committee adopts recommendations to the Commission, what is the responsibility of the Commission to report back to the Committee on those suggestions?

The mission of the Committee is to both make recommendations to the Commission and to “facilitate the participation of consumers.” Unless the Commission assumes an active roll in reviewing and providing feedback on the comments and recommendations submitted by its own Committee, American consumers stand little chance in becoming active participants in Commission proceedings – and in shaping our shared communications future. We hope you deem our dedicated work important enough to review on a timely basis and then provide opportunities for open discussion with your staff.

With President Bush’s signature on the Deficit Reduction Act and Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act, we are now less than three years from digital-only television broadcasting in the US. With each passing day, more and more American consumers are adopting this new technology as their electronic window to the world. On February 17, 2009, when analog TV is finally turned off, so too will broadcasters’ mandate to serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity be left behind unless the Commission acts to extend meaningful obligations to the digital world.

We look forward to your timely reply.

Sincerely,

Denis Moynihan
Chair, CAC Media Working Group
Democracy Now!
denis@democracynow.org
(212) 431-9090

Claude Stout
Chair, CAC Disabilities Working Group
Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. (TDI)
tdiexdir@aol.com
(301) 589-3006

Larry Goldberg
Chair, CAC Advanced Technology Working Group
Media Access Group, WGBH
Larry_Goldberg@WGBH.org
(617) 300-3722

Gene Crick
Chair, CAC Rural & Underserved Populations Working Group
TeleCommunity Resource Center
gcrick@main.org
(512) 919-7590

Charles Benton
Benton Foundation
cbenton@benton.org
(847)-328-3040

David Brugger
Brugger Consulting
dbrugger@pressroom.com
(202) 244-9068

Wayne Caswell
Individual with expertise in deployment of broadband
wcaswell@austin.rr.com
(512) 335-6073

John Cole
State of Hawaii, Division of Consumer Advocacy
jcole@dcca.hawaii.gov
(808) 586-2770

Laura Forlano
NYCwireless
laura@nycwireless.net
(646) 245-5388

Greg Frohriep
Communication Works of the Deaf, Inc.
captworks@aol.com
(248) 615-5071; (248) 615-4996 (TTY)

Steve Jacobs
IDEAL Group
steve.jacobs@ideal-group.org
(614) 777-0660; (800) 750-0750 (TTY)

Rebecca Ladew
Individual representing people w/disabilities
Rebecca.ladew@verizon.net
(410) 467-0967

Joel Snyder
National Captioning Institute
jsnyder@ncicap.org
(703) 917-7693 (office)

Louis A. Zanoni
Community Broadcasters Association
laz@wzbn.com
(609) 586-5088 (office), (609) 647-6201 (cell)