FCC Issues Digital Channels to TV Stations

The nation’s 1,600 TV stations each got a new channel assignment from federal regulators for the digital broadcasts some will begin airing by next Christmas. Broadcasters were studying the inches-thick chart to ensure that the licenses they’re getting--which will replace the ones they use today by 2006--replicate the broadcast area their current licenses cover. Digital broadcast equipment makers said the release signaled the start for TV stations’ digital equipment purchases--an estimated $6-billion buy for the industry over the next decade. How long the transition will take will vary by market and by station, but the industry promised the Federal Communications Commission that 23 network-owned stations in the top 10 markets will be up and running with digital technology by Christmas 1998. The rest of those top-10, network-owned stations will begin digital broadcasts within 24 months, broadcasters promised, and by Christmas 1999, 53% of U.S. households will be receiving at least three digital stations, broadcasters told the FCC when the agency voted on the rules to govern the new service.