In return, FCC Chairman Reed Hundt wants to require every major network-owned TV station in the top 10 markets to begin offering some digital broadcasts within 12 to 18 months after being licensed.
Broadcasters insist the timetable is unrealistic.
Edward Fritts, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, said Hundt's proposal doesn't give stations enough time to buy equipment, find sites for transmission towers and get Federal Aviation Administration clearance to put up the towers. Hundt, who made his remarks at a cable convention in New Orleans, doesn't seem sympathetic to broadcasters' arguments. It's making me wonder. The FCC's digital licensing proceeding doesn't affect cable TV companies, which are not federally licensed. Cable is just beginning to roll out digital technology in some markets.