WASHINGTON — A top federal regulator today will urge Congress to force station owners to speed the transition to digital television, even though consumers have been slow to buy the expensive digital TV sets.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman William E. Kennard wants Congress to force broadcasters to adopt digital technology more quickly--fearing that they will use a loophole to extend their control of extra airwaves far beyond a 2006 deadline.
Kennard accused broadcasters of "spectrum squatting," in which they are controlling billions of dollars of air waves but not using it as Congress intended for digital broadcasts.
Kennard will make his remarks in a strongly worded speech to be delivered at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York.
Digital television can provide distortion-free pictures and compact-disc quality sound as well as transmit computer files, graphics and other data at speeds 500 times as fast as today's analog computer modems. But fewer than 1% of television owners have paid the average cost of $3,000 for a digital TV set.
In April 1997, the FCC approved a plan to award digital TV licenses to each of the nation's 1,600 television station owners so they could provide razor-sharp digital video images.
TV station owners now have two channels--one in digital and the other in conventional analog format--so consumers can watch either conventional analog shows or digital programs where available.
Under the current federal timetable, a TV station must return its analog channel to the government by 2006, or when digital television penetration reaches 85% of the station's coverage area, whichever is later.
But Kennard wants Congress to impose a "spectrum-squatters' fee" on broadcasters who don't make the transition to digital TV by 2006.
Kennard also wants Congress to lower the 85% market threshold that triggers the requirement that station owners to return current channels to the government--for possible resale for wireless services--and exclusively use their digital channels to air programming.
Some critics believe most broadcasters are dragging their feet on digital TV in hopes of using their new digital airwaves as leverage in their fight with cable TV, satellite TV and other video providers competing for viewers' attention.
