Stevens Hopes to Control DTV Auction Revenue Spending
The $10 billion in projected revenue from the DTV spectrum auction should be used for emergency communications and subsidies to help consumers buy converter boxes for analog TVs that will become obsolete after the digital transition, Senate Commerce Committee Chmn Stevens (R-Alaska) told broadcasters at an MSTV conference Wed. He asked broadcasters to help persuade Congress and committee members that the money should be dedicated to projects he outlined, not diverted to other “very important projects that are necessary in the disaster areas.”
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The earmarked projects are “absolutely necessary” to make a smooth DTV transition, Stevens said. The committee must raise $4.8 billion the next 5 years, according to its budget resolution instructions, but the $10 billion covers all projects the committee envisions, Stevens told reporters. He said his committee hasn’t finished working on the DTV bills, which he expects to mark up Oct. 19. Because of Senate budget rules, it isn’t clear how the provisions will be split up. It’s expected that a main DTV bill will address renewal of spectrum auction authority, a hard date for DTV transition some time in 2009, the converter box subsidy and required E-911 services for VoIP providers.
The main bill is hard to write because any measures not related to funding are subject to the “Byrd rule,” which would allow members to challenge provisions, subject to override only with 60 votes. The 2nd DTV bill would address provisions such as funding for interoperability projects, emergency alert systems, DTV consumer education and other items yet to be determined, Stevens said. The committee hasn’t decided whether to include a broadcast flag provision in the bill. It’s a divisive issue, said James Assey, minority aide to the Senate Commerce Committee. “We'll have to count the votes and make a decision,” he said: “One thing we're not going to do is not add it because we didn’t know about it.”
“We expect to have a bipartisan bill, and that’s difficult to do in this field,” Stevens said: “This is a very tough neighborhood in our committee, because we have lots of differences of opinion, and it’s going to be very difficult to hold this bill as a bipartisan bill.” Some Democrats are concerned about whether putting the DTV issues into budget reconciliation will limit the money for consumer set-top boxes. But Stevens said the later the transition date, the fewer set-top boxes would be required because consumers will have bought more DTVs, lowering the subsidy needed. Stevens said the program under consideration would call for a co-payment the amount to be determined.
The House plans its DTV bill markup some time Oct. 17-19, said Howard Waltzman, majority aide to the House Commerce Committee. “We haven’t made a decision as to what day,” he said, but the bill will be “comprehensive” and incorporate changes from the discussion draft released in May (CD May 27 p1). A multicast must-carry provision won’t be in the base bill, he said, but he didn’t rule out the possibility of amendments: “I can’t predict the disposition of the committee.” If broadcasters commit to sufficient public interest obligations, they may win over enough votes to carry an amendment, he said.
Democrats are concerned about breaking items into separate bills because of a risk the nonbudget DTV bill wouldn’t get finished this year. “It’s like you eat your dessert first and don’t get around to eating your spinach and what we're left with a mess,” Assey said: “We're trying to think creatively, but at the end of the day what we're trying to do is address holistically all of the issues related to the transition.”
“We might as well do it all at once and do the job right,” said Christine Kurth, majority deputy staff dir., Senate Commerce Committee. Each member of Congress has to judge whether constituents are served by the bill, said Johanna Shelton, minority aide to the House Commerce Committee. Both sides said setting a date for the transition is key to guiding broadcasters and the CE industry. The CE industry has said it would take 18 months to design and bring to market a reasonably priced set-top box.
Stevens said his committee explored but rejected a plan to split the transition by requiring broadcasters that occupy spectrum dedicated to public safety to vacate first. “We have concluded that a transition that differed from market to market would be most confusing to consumers,” he said. And public safety experts said many devices that would use the spectrum haven’t been developed. Some industry experts told the committee that it would be several years before they would be ready to deploy such devices in the field, he said. “Freeing up the spectrum is only half the battle,” Stevens said. First responders need a way to incorporate their $60 billion investment into communications equipment with new systems developed to work with the recovered spectrum, he said.