Digital Television and Public Service Requirements
The broadcast industry has tried to recast the Digital TV debate as their struggle to deliver a beneficial new technology: High Definition Television, or HDTV. Digital HDTV would deliver pictures with a resolution about the same as 35 millimeter film and CD quality sound.
There are some blemishes on this rosy picture, however. For one, most people are unable to perceive any improvement in picture quality with HDTV programs unless they have a set measuring at least 40 inches. Moreover, it has became obvious that few, if any, broadcasters are really interested in providing any significant amount of HDTV programming. Instead, broadcasters have asked for “spectrum flexibility,” the permission to use this HDTV channel for everything but HDTV programming — to split it into a mixed bag of several regular-definition pictures, pay-per-view, paging services, data delivery, and other non-program services.
When commercial broadcasters first sought this so-called “spectrum flexibility” in 1994, MAP was the only non-industry organization that raised the issue of what broadcasters should give the public in return for the spectrum. MAP argued that broadcasters must pay for the extra spectrum with new public service obligations, including free time for political candidates, increased, quantifiable children’s educational programming, and public access.
In April, 1997, when it awarded the extra spectrum to TV broadcasters, the FCC promised to conduct a separate proceeding to address appropriate public interest obligations. The FCC’s decisionmaking will be aided by a special Presidential advisory committee on new public interest obligations for digital TV, which is to issue a report by October, 1998. MAP’s Executive Director has been selected as a member of the Advisory Committee.