Mar 27, 2007 -- Public Benefit Still Missing From Digital TV Transition
DTV Countdown Continues, But FCC Fails to Act on Public Service

Today, the Campaign Legal Center, the Benton Foundation and the Center for American Progress called on Congress and the FCC to require more than lip service from broadcasters on their obligations to the public. In a letter delivered to House Commerce and Energy Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) and Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey (D-MA) the organizations detailed the outstanding issues and unfinished business raised in Federal Communications Commission proceedings concerning the transition to digital television. The Subcommittee holds a hearing on the Status of the Digital Television Transition, which is to be completed in less than 700 days, on Wednesday morning.

Last month, during a FCC oversight hearing held by the same subcommittee, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, responding to questions from Subcommittee Chairman Markey, suggested that the Commission has already addressed a number of questions raised in a 1999 Notice of Inquiry on possible new public interest obligations for digital television stations, noting an extension of analog public interest obligations to digital TV.

In their letter, Legal Center Policy Director Meredith McGehee and Benton Chairman Charles Benton point out that since 1995, the Commission has realized that the greater capabilities afforded by digital technology could affect broadcasters' obligations to serve the public interest and asked for public comment on how those obligations might be adapted to the digital context.

In addition, an open proceeding launched in 1999 still has not addressed the obligations of broadcasters to disclose their public interest activities, enhance political discourse, enhance access to the media by all people, and meet minimum public interest obligations for the digital age.

"Digital television, with its capacity for multicasting, provides an opportunity for broadcasters to better meet citizen needs for public information because it can provide more information on more simultaneous channels," said Charles Benton. "As we transition to digital, policymakers have an opportunity to reinforce our democracy by establishing meaningful public interest obligations for digital broadcasters that can keep the public informed, the electorate engaged, and our democracy intact."

"The notion advanced by Chairman Martin that the FCC has essentially completed action on public interest obligations for digital broadcasting is both farcical on its face and scary in its implications for public policy," said McGehee. "Rather than ignoring citizens and maximizing profits for broadcasters who use the publicly owned airwaves free of charge, Chairman Martin should take advantage of transition from analog to digital to reinvigorate meaningful public interest obligations that can strengthen our democracy. This is too important an opportunity to be squandered."

About the Benton Foundation

A private foundation since 1981, the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org) works to advance a public interest vision and policy alternatives for the digital age and to demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems. The foundation is based in Washington, DC. From the fall of 1997 to December of 1998, Charles Benton was a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters, whose final report was submitted to Vice President Al Gore on December 18, 1998. In 2005-06, Benton also served on the FCC's Consumer Advisory Committee. In November 2005, the CAC recommended that the FCC complete its digital television/public interest obligations proceedings by May 2006.

About Campaign Legal Center

The Campaign Legal Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which works in the areas of campaign finance, communications and government ethics. We represent the public interest in administrative and legal proceedings where the nation's campaign finance and related media laws are enforced: at the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and in the courts. In the area of media law, the Legal Center shapes political broadcasting policy by promoting awareness and enforcement of political broadcasting laws through Federal Communication Commission rulemaking proceedings, Congressional action, and public education.