Hill Unlikely to Delay DTV Switch; May Allow Analog Slate
Expanded congressional Democratic majorities doesn’t have large implications for the DTV transition because lawmakers seem unlikely to delay the nationwide cutoff, lobbyists and others said Wednesday. But Democratic gains in the House and Senate may add to momentum for smaller changes associated with the analog cutoff, they said. Most likely to get Hill attention is the idea of letting TV stations use analog signals for a brief time after Feb. 17 to run analog slate messages telling viewers they need to buy converter boxes or take other action (CD Oct 17 p4), they said.
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“The cake is baked” on the Feb. 17 date, said Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman. “As the public education effort ramps up, that makes it all the more [difficult] to change the hard date.” But “tinkering around the edges” is much more likely, he added. “The nightlight thing strikes me as very plausible,” in which at least one station in each market runs an analog slate for several weeks, he said. A broadcast lobbyist agreed.
Chances for passage of analog slate legislation will rise if the House returns for a lame-duck session for several days, as seems likely, said the lobbyist. The Senate already is scheduled for such a session. Some version of S-3663, sponsored by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., or H-7013, by Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., could pass both chambers, the lobbyist said. But a bill to let stations near the Mexican border continue analog broadcasts is unlikely to pass, he added.
Time remains tight even for analog slate legislation, said Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center. “There’s a shot, but the leadership is being very tight-lipped and, if you will, conservative about what they can get done in a lame duck” session, she said of the Democratic congressional leadership. “They really only want to do things that truly have to be done, that are truly urgent and that they have confidence will pass.”