The Politics of America’s DTV Transition: Will the Telecom Act Rewrite Repeat the Fiasco of the 1996 Giveaway?

In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, local TV broadcasters won free use of spectrum worth tens of billions of dollars. In the decade since, broadcasters have sought a seemingly endless array of additional subsidies — including more spectrum, tax breaks, the broadcast flag, DTV tuner mandate, and DTV multicasting must-carry rights — to speed their DTV transition. A new book by New America Foundation Senior Research Fellow J.H. Snider explains how these lobbying feats were accomplished. He warns that as Congress gears up to “fix” its mistakes by legislating a “hard deadline” to end the long-stalled DTV transition — and reallocate $20 billion in spectrum from broadcasting to broadband — the same mistakes are likely to be repeated.

Will the Telecommunications Act rewrite result in the mistakes of the past being repeated? Are other telecom industries — including the cable, telco, satellite, and movie industries — equally vulnerable to the incentives of special interest politics? Come join this distinguished panel of telecom insiders as they discuss the politics of the DTV transition and the rewrite of the Telecommunications Act.

Participants

• J.H. Snider
  Research Director, Wireless Future Program, New America Foundation
• Steve Effros
  Former President, Cable Television Association
• Andrew Schwartzman
  President, Media Access Project
• Michael Petricone
  Vice President, Government Affairs, Consumer Electronics Association
• Michael Calabrese
  Vice President and Director, Wireless Future Program, New America Foundation