Flash!(websites of FCC and Association for Maximum Service Television differ on digital television deadline)(cast members to appear in advertising .'s new comedies)(fans critical of National Broadcasting Company Inc.'s "Friday Night Lights")

Broadcasting & Cable, March, 2007 by Topcik, Joel

Edited By Joel Topcik FCC, Industry Out of Sync on DTV Conversion Joel Topcik Government and industry may agree on the importance of informing consumers about the looming transition to digital television. But when it comes to counting the days until the deadline, they're out of sync.

Both the FCC and the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV), the broadcast industry's spectrum watchdogs, display ominous countdown clocks on their Websites. At press time, however, the two were a day apart--and it seems the government's clock is the one in error. The FCC's DTV site, dtv.gov, states that analog broadcasts may continue "through February 17, 2009." But according to its clock, zero hour comes at midnight on Feb. 16, a day...

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