September 24, 2008

DTV Doings: Sen Commerce Looks Again at Transition Before Congress Adjourns

The panic over Wall St outranked the panic of the Feb 17 DTV transition, with only a few senators popping in and out for the Sen Commerce Committee's DTV hearing Tues afternoon. Nonetheless, a fair amount of hand-wringing ensued over the impending analog cutoff. Declaring that "neither a President Obama nor a President McCain should have to deal with a failed transition so soon after coming into office," Sen Commerce chmn Daniel Inouye (D-HI) once again voiced concern over the transition's implementation. He said members of Congress are already getting calls, and suggested millions of calls could roll in based on the results from Wilmington, NC. Both FCC chmn Kevin Martin and NTIA's Meredith Attwell Baker have requested more money for transition efforts. GAO's Mark Goldstein had reservations about the current state of affairs. "We're still concerned that we'll have a lot of people who need coupons that won't get one in time," he told the committee, noting that govt converter box coupon expiration rates are higher among seniors than the general population. Similarly, he said only 8.7% of seniors have requested coupons vs 12.5% of the general population. Tues' hearings differed from last week's House Telecom Subcmte hearing in that the witness list included Wilmington, NC, mayor Bill Saffo. The mayor had early concerns about being home to the country's early DTV switch (Sept 8) but said those worries quickly diminished as the FCC addressed them "almost immediately." One takeaway from Wilmington: use fire depts. When citizens had more technical problems with installing converter boxes than just channel scans, members of the fire dept were dispatched to help—and while they were there, check smoke detectors. Saffo said residents were more open to allowing a member of the fire dept into their homes. The next big DTV milestones on deck include NTIA's written, formal plan to deal with the expected spike in requests and the flurry of activity expected around Nov 10—when the transition is exactly 100 days out. In other DTV doings, Martin wrote CEA and the Consumer Electronic Retailers Assoc Tues asking for help in encouraging battery-powered DTV converter boxes, noting that many Americans rely on battery powered TV receivers for information when power outages occur. To date, only 1 manufacturer has made a battery pack for use with its converter, Martin said. He also lamented the limited number of battery-powered receivers available.