FCC Announces Nationwide DTV Outreach in 80 Cities
FCC commissioners will offer digital transition education in 80 cities the next five months, Chairman Kevin Martin said Monday. Commissioners first will fan out to 25 cities dense with viewers dependent on over-the-air signals. The agency and the NAB are working on possible “soft tests” of temporary analog cutoffs aimed at finding problems before Feb. 17, 2009. A new speakers bureau will send agency officials to other communities seeking DTV education, Martin said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
“It’s helpful to have people on the ground at consumer education events,” Martin said at a press briefing. Funds for the effort came chiefly from $12 million in unused FCC FY 2008 money. Congress voted last month to allow the commission to use that sum for DTV education (CD July 10 p5). The FCC still hopes to get $20 million in FY 2009 funds that President Bush sought and congressional subcommittees approved, an effort now stalled, Martin said.
Congress likely will adopt a continuing resolution for the budget in lieu of passing appropriations bills. “There still is a mechanism for the commission to go back and ask Congress for some additional monies,” Martin said, alluding to the continuing resolution. The agency would take that route, he said. Noting that some subcommittees already have approved the $20 million request, he said support seems strong in Congress to include the appropriation.
The six months pre-cutoff are “challenging,” Martin said. But outreach program and speakers bureaus offer public events that could illuminate the transition, he added. The program should offer more detail than public service announcements have provided, and targets seniors, disabled people and the poor, residents of tribal and rural areas, minorities and non-English speakers. NAB, CEA, NCTA and the Consumer Electronics Retailers Association back the agency plan. NAB and DTV Coalition members will join the nationwide tour.
Lawmakers fear technical hitches as converter boxes go into place. Martin told Congress earlier this year he was working with community groups to send volunteers to those needing help. Legal concerns have put those plans on hold, he said at the briefing.
Soft tests constitute a “bold, creative” plan, said NAB Television Board Chairman Jim Yager, endorsing them. “We are committed to ensuring that television viewers do not lose service because they were not aware of the transition or their options,” said CEA President Gary Shapiro.
Half or more of households are participating in the converter box coupon program in 187 of the country’s 210 TV markets, NTIA Acting Administrator Meredith Baker said in a statement. “Nationwide, with more than 23 million coupons requested and more than 8.2 million redeemed, millions of households are now experiencing the benefits of digital TV because of the Coupon Program,” Baker said.