Panel scraps McCain DTV-transition deadline

From Multichannel News:

"The Senate Commerce Committee voted Wednesday to scrap a plan sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would have ended the digital-TV transition by 2009 in order to free up spectrum for police, fire and rescue units for emergency communications.

The panel adopted an amendment that would require TV stations to give back 24 megahertz total — channels 63, 64, 68 and 69 — no later than Dec. 31, 2007.

On Tuesday, McCain introduced a bill that would have required TV stations to yield 108 MHz of spectrum Dec. 31, 2008, unconditionally. McCain complained that the Burns-Hollings amendment was the handiwork of National Association of Broadcasters lobbyists to ensure that any spectrum return occurred on broadcasters’ preferred timetable and at the expense of public-safety groups.

Some in Congress are pressuring TV stations to give back all of their analog spectrum as quickly as possible because public-safety groups need a clear block of spectrum to resolve interoperability problems that plagued rescue units at the World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001.

The NAB’s Senate victory shifts the debate to the FCC. The agency is expected to vote Nov. 9 on a plan that would track with McCain’s legislation by ending the digital-TV transition Dec. 31, 2008."