WASHINGTON-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and frequent critic of the TV broadcast lobby, plans to introduce a bill Tuesday that would end the transition to digital TV at Jan. 1, 2009.
McCain’s move likely will pre-empt the current chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who said last week that he is preparing a similar bill, but did not give a timeframe for introducing it.
The McCain bill will be similar to legislation known as the Save Lives Act (the Spectrum Availability for Emergency Response and Law Enforcement to Improve Vital Emergency Services), which he introduced last year, but will reduce the set-top box subsidy from $1 billion to $463 million plus administrative costs. This amount is expected to cover the 9.2 million low-income homes that receive their TV signals from free over-the-air broadcasting. Low income is defined as up to 200 percent above the poverty line.
Democrats on the House Commerce Committee were critical of the House staff draft when it did not include a set-top box subsidy.
Exactly how a subsidy program would be structured is unclear. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters the closest the Federal Communications Commission has come to administering such a program is universal service. “The FCC’s most relevant experience is in the context of universal service,” said Martin. “We have never implemented quite that kind of subsidy program like they are talking about.”
McCain is expected to offer details of his plan at a press conference Tuesday, which former Gov. Thomas Kean (R-N.J.) and former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), chairman and vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, are expected to attend. The 9/11 Commission said the spectrum that TV broadcasters are using needs to be reclaimed to help public safety.
McCain’s Saves Lives Act was at the center of a debate during consideration of the intelligence-reform bill, but the Senate sacrificed commercial wireless interests as it passed an amendment that would force TV broadcasters to give back the 700 MHz spectrum if public-safety users showed a bona-fide need.
In 1997, Congress said that in 2007, broadcasters would have to return the extra 6 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band given to TV broadcasters to facilitate the DTV transition. But TV broadcasters could keep the spectrum if more than 15 percent of the homes in their viewing areas could not receive digital signals. Removing the caveat has become known as establishing a hard date and has been widely encouraged by the wireless industry, which wants access to some of the spectrum.
Regardless of action by Congress, the FCC Thursday tried to speed the DTV transition by denying a request by the Consumer Electronics Association to delay when mid-size TVs-defined as 25 to 36 inches-must contain a DTV tuner. All mid-sized TVs will have to contain a DTV tuner before March 1, 2006. The FCC is also seeking comment on whether it should accelerate the deadline of July 1, 2007, for smaller sets and whether to require a DTV tuner in TVs with screens smaller than 13 inches.
“We cannot take any steps backward. Rather we need to push the transition to its conclusion as expeditiously as possible,” said FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy.
Broadcasters, who have complained that people can’t receive digital signals until the TVs can receive them, hailed the ruling.
“With today’s decision, the commission validates that the `tuner mandate’ is a powerful pro-consumer mechanism for moving the DTV transition forward. … Allowing set manufacturers to continue selling analog-only TV sets only elongates the transition to digital,” said Edward Fritts, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Broadcasters. RCR
RCR Wireless News Washington Bureau Chief Jeffrey Silva contributed to this report.
