Border TVs Don't Speak Same Language On Analog Cut-Off

A group of English-language stations along the border with Mexico say they don't want the option of continuing to broadcast in analog for up to five years after the Feb. 17, 2009 switch to digital. That stand exposes a rift between Spanish-language and English-language stations on the border. The DTV Border Fix Act, which was co-sponsored by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), would allow qualified TV stations within 50 miles of the border to broadcast in analog until 2014. In a letter to the leadership of the House Commerce Committee, executives from almost a dozen stations say that allowing certain broadcasters to delay the transition for up to five years, as would the DTV Border Fix Act, "threatens to put viewers along the border in a state of limbo." The bill would make the continued analog broadcasting optional, and has numerous caveats, including that the stations could not interfere with DTV stations, could not interfere with public-safety communications and could not prevent the auction of public spectrum. But one general manager says that the reality is that if some stations continue in analog, the rest will be under competitive pressures to do so as well, which would result in a confusing transition and additional expense by the stations who have to continue to simulcast. The DTV Border Fix Act passed by voice vote in the Senate and is awaiting House action.