February 2009

Be the first on your block to comment on legislation before President Obama signs it into law. First up: the DTV Delay Act of 2009 approved by the House on February 4, 2009. The bill delays the transition of television broadcasting from analog to digital to June 13, 2009 while extending -- to July 31, 2009 -- the deadline for requesting digital-to-analog converter box coupons. If you have coupons that have expired, the bill allows the NTIA to issue replacement coupons. The Act does NOT prevent: 1) a station from ending analog broadcasting (and continuing to broadcast exclusively digitally) before June 13, 2009; or 2) a public safety service from beginning operations on spectrum recovered as a result of such voluntary cessation of analog or digital broadcasting. During the campaign, then-candidate Obama promised not to sign a bill before giving the public five days to comment on it -- here's your chance.

The Federal Communications Commission met to discuss the progress of the upcoming digital television transition on Thursday. The three FCC commissioner expressed relief over Congress' Wednesday passage of legislation delaying the date of the digital television transition from February 17 to June 12.

While proponents of the delay say going forward with the Feb. 17 date would leave too many people without TV, 90% of television industry readers surveyed by TVWeek oppose the delay, citing the additional cost of dual signals and the potential for consumer confusion.

FCC Chairman Michael Copps did not present any "grand plan" of action for the next four months, but said at a monthly meeting that it was still important to "take stock of where we are" and assess what kind of efforts will be necessary to create a "new and effective game plan." Commissioner Robert McDowell expressed concern that the delay until June might confuse some consumers. Lamenting a lack of reliable data, McDowell added, "we have no way of knowing where the unprepared are."

The Commission adopted rules for implementing the extension of the digital television transition. The FCC will require any station that still wants to end analog transmissions by Feb 17 to apprise the agency by Feb. 9. The stations must also air at least 120 PSAs informing viewers of that decision between now and Feb. 17. Chairman Copps said that while Congress wants the FCC to ease the way for stations to switch over, the FCC reserves the right to deny requests from stations to switch to digital-only early "if they do not serve the public interest." Chairman Copps said in his first meeting that the FCC would be flexible in terms of stations that want to still pull the plug on Feb. 17, he said the commission would have the option of not agreeing to do so if it were not in the public interest, including not giving viewers sufficient chance to prepare. For example, he said, if all the major stations in a market were going on Feb. 17, that would bear scrutiny.

Chairman Copps announced that a number of station groups -- including CBS, Fox, NBC, Telemundo, ABC, Gannett and Hearst-Argyle -- had pledged to keep all or most of their stations on the air in analog until June 12.

Not to alarm anyone or anything and we're not suggesting you rush to the store and buy a converter box before you get your government-issued coupon, but Michael Petricone of the Consumer Electronics Association says there could be a shortage of digital-to-analog television converter boxes -- depending on demand. (But, really, no worries, we'll just go out back and make some more.) FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said that the possible shortfall of coupons was one of the two bombshells in the three-hour DTV update. The other was the revelation by a representative of NTIA that it could be April before coupons start being processed expeditiously given that the money to do so is contained in the economic stimulus package that may not be passed until early March. McDowell wryly observed that the government had accommodated that possible shortfall in converters, saying that while there may not be an boxes on the shelves, that's OK, because there won't be any coupons either.

[Commentary] As job losses mount and bailout costs run into the trillions, the social costs of the economic downturn become clearer. The primary question, to be sure, is what can be done to shorten or alleviate these bad times. But there is also a broader set of questions about how this downturn is changing our lives, in ways beyond strict economics. All recessions have cultural and social effects, but in major downturns the changes can be profound. The Great Depression, for example, may be regarded as a social and cultural era as well as an economic one. And the current crisis is also likely to enact changes in various areas, from our entertainment habits to our health. First, consider entertainment. Many studies have shown that when a job is harder to find or less lucrative, people spend more time on self-improvement and relatively inexpensive amusements. During the Depression of the 1930s, that meant listening to the radio and playing parlor and board games, sometimes in lieu of a glamorous night on the town. These stay-at-home tendencies persisted through at least the 1950s. In today's recession, we can also expect to turn to less expensive activities — and maybe to keep those habits for years. They may take the form of greater interest in free content on the Internet and the simple pleasures of a daily walk.

A big chunk of the billions of dollars earmarked in economic recovery bills for broadband grants for wireless and other service providers likely will not make it into the private sector anytime soon, raising questions about the intended stimulus effect. The Congressional Budget Office says that because the new appropriations would far exceed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's 2009 funding of $17 million and require grant recipients provide 20% of the project's cost from non-federal sources, it could take as long as seven years to spend the broadband funds. In its review of House-passed stimulus legislation, the CBO projected that much of the $6 billion in broadband grants geared to underserved and unserved areas will be spent between 2012 and 2016.