**SEPARATE STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER JONATHAN S. ADELSTEIN**

> *Re: Second Periodic Review of the Commission's Rules and Policies
> Affecting the Conversion to Digital Television, Report and Order*

This item appropriately moves the digital television transition forward.
It establishes a staggered channel election process to arrive at a final
channel assignment for broadcasters. Along the way, we worked hard to
ensure that broadcasters have as much ability as possible to make
informed judgments consistent with our overarching goal of speeding the
transition and bringing enhanced digital viewing to consumers. We
recognize that further work is needed to address low power stations and
international border coordination. We advance innovation through
distributed transmission technologies. We open up technical avenues for
enhancements to v-chip and closed captioning technologies. And we
continue to monitor efforts to improve consumer information. Each of
these steps advances the transition and adds further clarity, certainty,
and transparency to the process.

While I'm pleased that we march on with the mechanics of the digital
transition, I am puzzled why we have not yet provided broadcasters and
the public with a concrete understanding of broadcasters' public
interest obligations in the digital age.

This necessary piece of the transition continues to lag further and
further behind. Congress made clear that broadcasters continue to have
public interest obligations in the digital world, but left it up to the
Commission to specify how those should be applied. As we continue to
speed the arrival of the best possible digital television service to the
public, several proceedings that could bring certainty continue to
linger at the Commission. More than four years ago the Commission
inquired generally how it should update broadcasters' public interest
obligations for the digital age. In September 2000, the Commission
followed with specific proceedings to update children's television
obligations and to standardize and enhance broadcasters' disclosure of
public files. In this periodic review, we sought additional comment on
these proceedings and stated our goal of bringing them to a prompt
conclusion. Yet no further action has been taken on any of those
proceedings.

We've had more than ample time to bring the public interest into the
transition. Parents are eager to know what opportunities the transition
will bring to their children. Candidates should be able to use the
Internet to quickly determine the political advertising landscape of a
given station. Broadcasters should welcome the opportunity to showcase
their local civic and public affairs coverage on their websites. The
digital age offers tremendous opportunities for both broadcasters and
the public. Multicasting and other new horizons in digital broadcasting
should correspond to new horizons in serving the public interest.

A new era in broadcasting is taking shape now. The vast bulk of
broadcasters are now broadcasting digitally, with hundreds broadcasting
multiple programming streams. We owe it to the public and to
broadcasters to devote sufficient time and resources of this Commission
to establishing concrete, measurable public interest obligations to
fulfill Congress's vision of this enhanced digital viewing experience.
Let's not leave the public behind as we continue finalizing the
blueprints for digital television.