The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved by a 4-0 vote a compromise timetable for network-owned or network-affiliated stations to begin broadcasting digital TV by the end of 1998.
Under the approved rules, 22 network-owned or network-affiliated stations in the 10 largest US markets will begin sending digital signals within 18 months. FCC Chairman Reed Hundt had proposed a 12-month timetable.
As part of the compromise, the 18-month timetable is voluntary. However, the order specifies that all the ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC stations in the 10 biggest markets - New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, and Atlanta - will begin digital telecasts in 24 months. All network affiliates in the top 30 markets must begin digital broadcasts in 30 months.
The orders also include digital channel assignments for all the nation's 1,544 television stations. The channel assignments are being made free, and Hundt has pushed for an aggressive schedule for digital rollout, in part to free up stations' analog frequency assignments so that part of the spectrum can be auctioned off for other uses. Estimates of the value of the vacated spectrum run as high as US$15 billion.
Digital television sets, which will likely retail for $2,000 initially, carry about 10 times as much data as today's standard TVs, creating a much sharper and clearer picture. Those without digital TVs will be able to buy converters for their standard television sets.
The FCC and National Association of Broadcasters spent the past few weeks feuding over the rollout schedule. The industry said Hundt's rapid rollout plan was unrealistic because it didn't allow time for installing and testing new equipment and gaining local approval for required new transmission facilities.
While the timetable issue appears to be settled, the commission deferred action on another key issue: how much air time broadcasters will be required to give to public-service programming in exchange for the free channel assignments. Public-interest activists, the Clinton administration, and members of both parties in Congress have insisted that the broadcasters be required to surrender large blocks of time for public-service programming. No schedule has been set for deciding the issue.
