**Remarks of Commissioner Michael J. Copps**

**DTV Consumer Education Workshop**

**September 26, 2007**

 

            Good afternoon.  I want to welcome you all to the FCC to
discuss these vital issues.  Thank you for getting involved in this
great challenge.  My only regret is that this workshop wasn't convened a
year ago.  As many of you know, I believe that we are dangerously behind
the curve in preparing the American people for the end of analog
television.  February 17, 2009 is less than 17 months away, and, as the
poet said, we have miles to go before we sleep.

 

Everyone in this room should have one overriding goal -- to make sure
that no television viewer wakes up to a blank screen on February 18,
2009.  Given the stakes --

not only for television viewers but for so many others -- including the
public safety community and wireless service providers about to bid on
the 700 MHz spectrum -- one would think that by now educating the public
about the transition would have long since been a major national
priority. 

 

Well, not yet.  I was heavily involved in the Y2K effort.  I know what
it looks like when something is a national priority.  There's a goal,
then there's a strategy, then there are tactics to get it done. There is
daily coordination at the highest levels.  There is accountability,
clarity in the lines of authority, and funding to get the job done. 
Now, some people say Y2K was a massive non-event, and the lesson they
draw is that we over-reacted.  Well, my view is that we'll never get
these things exactly right.  We can either do too much or too little. 
Put me down on the side of doing too much.  I'd love for a non-event on
that February 2009 morning.  Right now we're not on the road to a
non-event.  We're on the road to a cold winter blizzard of outraged
consumers.

 

So it's time to start engaging the American public in a serious and
coordinated way.  Web sites and pamphlets are fine, but they're not
going to get the job done.  The best way to reach television viewers is
through television programming.  I note that the cable industry has
launched an on-air campaign and the broadcasters will now be announcing
next month.  I commend those and other voluntary efforts to get the word
out. 

 

But this transition is too important to be left to chance or patchwork
decisions by individual licensees.  We cannot afford to have some
licensees in a presidential election year decide that they can make more
money selling political ads and figuring that someone else can pick up
the DTV transition outreach slack.  We need to know what the programming
plans are.  We need to know when and where PSAs are running.  We need to
know whether broadcast and cable efforts are actually reaching the
communities that are particularly at risk.  And we need to be able to
redirect our efforts quickly if necessary. 

Someone needs to coordinate and oversee that effort.  In Y2K we had an
Inter-Agency Task Force, headed out of The White House.  That'd be
great, but absent that, it seems to me that the FCC is the only entity
in a position to get the job done.

 

We have a lot to do over the next 17 months, and there is a role for all
of us -- government, industry and private citizens.  Working together
that way is how we always overcome our greatest challenges.  Let's try
that here.  We have one chance to get this right.  It's late, but
hopefully not too late.