Martin Makes Late Request for Tuesday Vote on DTV Review
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin made a late request for commissioners to vote on an order at Tuesday’s meeting to help set the process for broadcasters to complete the transition to digital TV, agency and industry sources said. Days before the commissioners are scheduled to meet, Martin asked all of them to agree to vote on the third periodic review of rules affecting the DTV transition, two agency officials said. The report and order was sent to commissioners Dec. 4, according to the FCC’s list of items on circulation. The commission voted at April’s meeting on a rulemaking notice that paved the way for the current order (CD May 22 p5).
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The last-minute request rankled some at the FCC because the chairman usually gives the other commissioners three weeks to review items before a vote, said agency officials. Because the agenda for the meeting Tuesday already has been released, all the commissioners must agree for the DTV order to be added to the list of items set for consideration, agency sources said. It was unclear at our deadline whether they would. An FCC spokeswoman declined to comment.
The commissioners are under pressure from lawmakers, consumer groups and others to step up efforts to educate the public about the transition and pave the way for broadcasters to make final equipment tweaks. Several members of the Senate Commerce Committee asked Martin pointed questions about the FCC’s leadership of transition efforts at a hearing Thursday (CD Dec 13 p1). After the hearing, Martin made the unusual request for commissioners to agree to act on the order, an FCC source said. Because of the complexity of issues dealt with in the order, it’s unclear whether commissioners will have enough time to consider it before the meeting, FCC officials said. But an industry lawyer said the order isn’t controversial and could be acted on quickly.
Broadcasters have sought flexibility in the rule, they said in filings with the FCC. Commercial broadcasters want changes to a proposed interference standard because some of the coverage area maps in the DTV Table of Allotments will limit stations’ reach, another broadcast lawyer said. “The model the FCC used to generate the post-transition digital service areas does not produce achievable contours in some cases,” lawyer Thomas Van Wazer said. “Without a rule that allows reasonable extensions or rounding out of a coverage area, stations are going to be stuck with extremely poor service areas and substandard digital coverage. As result they need to liberalize that standard.” Industry also wants the commission to process requests for minor modifications from stations’ post-transition allotments as soon as possible so they can improve their service areas on or before Feb. 17, he said. Additionally, broadcasters want flexibility to adjust analog and digital power and coverage before and after the transition without filing paperwork with the FCC, to optimize their transition to digital, Van Wazer said. “Broadcasters have every incentive to manage the transition in a way that serves the viewers’ interests,” he said.
The Association of Public Television Stations asked the FCC to simplify the transition process. “Given these many inevitable obstacles in the transition -- limited equipment manufacturers and installers, brief construction seasons, etc. -- APTS and PBS urge the commission not to develop policies that introduce additional, unnecessary layers of complexity to this process,” public TV lawyers said in a meeting with Media Bureau officials, an ex parte filing said. “A station whose signal is not reaching beyond the service contour projected by the parameters in the new Appendix B [Table of Allotments] should not be required to file a modification application, even if its facilities do not precisely match those listed in Appendix B.”
“From the broadcaster position, we want to get a set of rules out as soon as possible,” said David Donovan, president of the Association for Maximum Service TV. “But we also want to make sure the rules are correct and will facilitate the transition, rather than tying us up in a real cumbersome process,” he said. “This is all getting worked out.”