FCC Majority Backs Digital TV Proposal

A majority of members of the Federal Communications Commission has agreed to support a modified broadcast industry plan to launch digital television in the nation’s largest TV markets by the fall of 1998.

The FCC could vote on the plan as early as today, paving the way for the agency to issue licenses for the long-awaited technology this month. Digital television promises to bring more channels, superior pictures and sound, and in some cases cinema-quality high-definition television to consumers who buy new digital TV sets.

Three of the four FCC commissioners are said to support a plan submitted by the National Assn. of Broadcasters that would make digital television available to nearly half of all American households in two years.

The plan now calls for at least 25 stations in the top 10 TV markets to broadcast digital TV within 18 months. They would be joined, within two years, by all network affiliates in the top 10 markets and, within 30 months, by all network affiliates in the top 30 markets.

Commissioners also have agreed, as expected, to delay adoption of detailed service rules, such as imposing public interest requirements on broadcasters in exchange for their new digital TV frequencies, saying they would await the work of a presidential commission looking in to the issue.

Existing broadcasters will receive the new frequencies for free, a policy many have decried as an unjustified giveaway of public resources.

“I remain optimistic that the commission can resolve all open issues today and adopt our final two digital television orders tomorrow,” said FCC Commissioner Susan Ness, who helped negotiate the agreement.

The accord now leaves the long-awaited roll-out of digital television in the hands of FCC Chairman Reed Hundt. But Hundt, who has accused broadcasters of dragging their feet on digital television, had not signaled his support of the compromise late Wednesday and had not placed the plan on the agenda of today’s FCC meeting.

Hundt wants every major network-owned TV station in the top 10 markets to offer some digital broadcasts within 12 to 18 months after being licensed.

Broadcasters have complained that such a timetable is unrealistic. Industry executives say such as short time frame does not give stations enough time to buy equipment and re-engineer broadcast towers.