Update on Spectrum Issues for Television Broadcasting

Spectrum was always a central core issue during the U.S. DTV transition. The original Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proceeding on advanced television, tracing back to 1987, envisioned a new system as a way to keep television broadcasting competitive, and the promise of dazzling pictures from HDTV was a compelling motivation, requiring adequate spectrum to initiate the new service. But governmental motivation to recover spectrum became a powerful incentive to propel and ultimately in June 2009 to complete the transition, with the U.S. government recouping 108 MHz of spectrum from the broadcast allocation—24 MHz reallocated for use by public safety and the rest yielding auction revenues of almost $20 billion for the Treasury. Spectrum, as a finite resource, is a much valued asset. Now that the DTV transition has been completed for over two years, pressure has been mounting from other industries and their supporters that foresee their own spectrum needs growing and further reallocation or sharing of broadcast spectrum as a way to satiate those needs. The FCC's National Broadband Plan and authorization of unlicensed devices operating in the TV bands are particular current examples of interest.