The FCC’s DTV work has produced millions of dollars in recent contracts for consumer education and converter box installation, and the approval late Friday of a digital translator station order, according to interviews with agency officials and a review of records. The officials said additional contract awards are near. From the $86.5 million in stimulus money that the commission is expected to spend on DTV (CD March 12 p4), it has made agreements with 26 contractors -- companies, nonprofits and a PBS affiliate. The awards total $23.2 million and cover all regions of the U.S., commission records showed.

The NAB will start looking for a successor to David Rehr, who resigned abruptly Wednesday, by forming a search committee perhaps within 10 days, the chairman of the association’s joint board said Friday. “We're all in agreement that this is a summer project,” Jack Sander said in an interview. “It’s not a few days or a few weeks, but it’s also not going to be months and months.” The search committee may have eight to 12 members and include all those on the executive committees of the joint board and the TV and radio boards, said Sander, a senior adviser at Belo. But the boards’ membership will change with annual elections in June, so “we're kind of in a limbo state,” he said. “That’s going to slow the process down a little bit, but I can tell you we are going to move aggressively and quickly to get the search committee up and running.” Rehr said last week “it was a good time” for him to leave, after “a very good” annual show in April and a push for open mobile video standards, according to Sander. “I think he just looked at the calendar and said, ‘Is there ever a good time’ [to leave]? I think not,'” Sander said. “We supported that and, candidly, agreed with it.” The next president’s party affiliation won’t matter, and experience as a broadcaster would be an asset but not a requirement, Sander said. Some members want the NAB chief after Rehr, who had no broadcasting experience, to have worked in the industry or at least understand it from the start (CD May 8 p5). “I think there will be some good candidates” who lack radio or TV experience “but are smart enough to get up to speed” and do so “fast,” said Sander. “We've got broadcasters who can educate someone, but they have to be able to really understand our industry and the stresses our industry is going through.”

The NAB’s search for a successor to David Rehr, who’s abruptly resigning (CD May 7 p1), should net candidates intimately familiar with the broadcasting industry, said members we surveyed Thursday. Rehr was hired by the group in October 2005 from the National Beer Wholesalers Association and had not worked previously in the broadcast industry. His replacement should have worked in radio or TV or be up to speed on those industries, said members.

The FCC is asking many of the 927 full-power TV stations going all-digital June 12 to simulate analog- signal cutoffs three weeks beforehand, said agency and industry officials. The regulator hopes broadcasters will run the so-called soft analog cutoffs May 21, though some details remain to be worked out, said a commission spokesman. A goal is for stations to conduct three that day and evening lasting five minutes each, he added. “The idea is to do it three times during the day just so that you can make sure that you reach a wider range of viewers.” For those without DTV converter boxes or $40 NTIA coupons to buy them, “we wanted to make sure people have time to get a coupon,” the spokesman said. “This would be sort of a jolt for people who weren’t ready.” Some broadcasters may balk at simulating analog cutoffs for five minutes, and consider running shorter tests, industry officials said. The Association for Maximum Service Television and NAB are asking members for feedback about the timing and length of the soft cutoffs, officials at those groups said. “We want to be as helpful as we can to the commission,” said MSTV President David Donovan. The average length of broadcaster soft cutoffs is one to three minutes, said an NAB spokesman. Before what was to have been the Feb. 17 nationwide DTV transition, Media Bureau and other officials had asked and gotten broadcasters to run soft cutoffs (CD Dec 8 p2). The NAB has “always encouraged and supported the use of these tests because they're one of the best ways for consumers to determine whether or not they're ready for digital signals,” said the spokeswoman. “So we are generally supportive of the idea” broached recently by the FCC for more tests, she added, “especially given how close it is to the final deadline.”

A push on Capitol Hill by many in the pay-TV industry to change broadcaster markets (CD May 1 p12) to let cable and satellite subscribers watch in-state stations even when they live outside the market is gaining momentum, said supporters and opponents of the Designated Market Area changes. Although not necessarily a coordinated campaign, having small cable operators and the two largest direct broadcast satellite companies on the same page increases the odds of favorable legislation, they said. Large operators are less active on the issue, which has arisen as Congress considers reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act. But the big operators aren’t standing in the way of the American Cable Association, DirecTV and Dish Networks, they said.

David Rehr resigned Wednesday as head of the NAB in response to ire from some members over policy losses for broadcasters and what they saw as his lack of engagement on Capitol Hill and at the FCC on crucial issues. Rehr’s departure was a sudden one, in that no successor was named and a search for his replacement is just getting under way, said broadcast executives. But some saw it as a long time coming after losses on white spaces at the FCC, which also approved the purchase of XM by Sirius over the NAB’s objections, and congressional delay of the DTV transition and other setbacks.

Broadcasters are more likely to indirectly benefit from the $7.2 billion the U.S. is spending for broadband stimulus than to get a chunk of the money directly from RUS and NTIA, said eight dealmakers, industry lawyers and officials we surveyed. They've not heard of any radio or TV station thinking of applying for grants. Some said stations stand to most benefit by getting contracts from grant winners to produce audio or video training materials and by leasing out tower space for other companies to use to hang wireless broadband transmission gear.

Congress shouldn’t give any pay-TV provider a leg up on cable by applying changes to broadcaster Designated Market Areas only to satellite-TV companies, said a draft letter that American Cable Association members gave lawmakers to sign. The letter is addressed to the heads and ranking members of the House Commerce and Judiciary Committees. ACA members visited lawmakers Wednesday to discuss the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act (CD April 29 p6). Changes that lawmakers are considering in reauthorizing the act would allow some viewers to receive broadcasts that are out-of-market but in-state broadcasts, the letter said. That “would be very attractive to consumers who are frustrated with their inability to receive in-state information,” it said. “However, giving satellite TV companies the right to offer enhanced local broadcast service without giving cable companies the same rights would now significantly disrupt the competitive video market Congress has helped create.” Executives of small operators got “very positive feedback” when they offered these views to members of Congress, an ACA spokesman said. The group “is optimistic that Congress will not leave cable customers behind,” he added. DirecTV’s vice president of government affairs, Andrew Reinsdorf, said his company is cooperating with the ACA “on supporting the concept of modest DMA reform.” The company is also working with Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., who wants to allow carriers to import distant signals (CD March 31 p9). “There’s no daylight between the cable industry” and DirecTV on the issue, said Reinsdorf. “There never has been.” An NAB spokesman didn’t immediately reply to a message seeking comment. The group has been opposed to changes in broadcast markets.

Commissioner approval of an FCC order allowing the operation of DTV translators to permit full-power stations to fill in their coverage areas with digital service (CD Dec 24 p1) seems near, said agency officials Wednesday. Not all FCC members have approved the draft Media Bureau order, but revisions some commissioners proposed are being reviewed, they said. Once those revisions are addressed, the order can be publicly issued. It was circulated April 1, according to the FCC’s Web site.

The FCC’s decision to start censuring the airing of a single curse word didn’t violate the Administrative Procedure Act as broadcasters contended and as the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York ruled, said a split Supreme Court decision Tuesday. The majority opinion remanded the case to the 2nd Circuit and was written by Justice Antonin Scalia. It was a narrow ruling on procedural grounds -- as expected (CD Nov 5 p4) -- but communication lawyers said it may pave the way for the 2nd Circuit to consider constitutional questions. Until the case is decided and further appeals exhausted, the FCC may lack constitutional guidance on indecency rules, they said.