FCC chief: Switch to digital TV won’t be postponed

In a broad discussion at the Consumer Electronics Show, U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin on Tuesday confirmed that the deadline for the country’s switch to digital TV next year will not be postponed, explained the rationale behind the requirements for the current 700MHz auction, and gave hints about his thinking regarding various communications megamergers.

Interviewed at the show by Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro, Martin said the February 2009 deadline for the digital TV switch is a “hard deadline.” He said a postponement would “dis-incentivize” industry to make the transition.

“After all of our efforts we couldn’t just turn around and say ‘We’re just kidding,'” he said.

About 50 percent of all homes in the U.S. now have digital TVs, and the CEA forecasts that some 28 million digital TVs will be bought in the U.S. this year, Shapiro noted.

The transition to digital will not only improve picture quality for consumers, but also free up spectrum that can be used for wireless broadband, Martin stressed. He also noted that the extra spectrum provided by the switch would be used to improve public safety, allowing for better communications between fire departments and police. The need for better coordination among law enforcement and safety officials was a major point made in the 9/11 Commission report, he noted.

Requirements related to the auction for 700MHz spectrum blocks in the U.S. will play an important part in bringing broadband access to more people, such as inhabitants in rural areas, who have limited wireless options now, he said.

The spectrum auction has been broken up into blocks. One block, for example, has open-access rules and is broken up into 12 regional licenses across the U.S. There are also “buildout” requirements that will ensure that auction winners will actually put the spectrum to use in a reasonable timeframe, Martin said.

He declined to comment directly on the planned merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, currently under review by the Department of Justice. But he noted that the companies have been talking about a la carte pricing plans for shows, which would give consumers a wide range of options to choose different bundles of programs and prices. Martin said he would encourage content providers — especially cable TV companies — to offer this type of program-options plan.

One disappointment in the wake of communications industry deregulation has been the rising price of cable TV, he said.

Martin stopped short of saying that approval of the Sirius-XM merger would set a regulatory precedent for a rumored merger deal between satellite TV companies Echostar and DirecTV. But he did say that it would be important for the satellite TV companies to give consumers more pricing and program bundle options as part of any merger plan.

“This is the type of thing we’d be looking at,” he said.