EchoStar Part of DTV Coalition

[Gregg Lengling]

EchoStar has joined a group that's aiming to advance the switch to digital television.

The Digital Transition Coalition said Wednesday it wants to speed the transition to digital TV and ensure the return of analog spectrum back to American taxpayers. In addition to the satellite TV company, the coalition said its members include Americans for Tax Reform, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, Frontiers of Freedom, Media Access Project, Public Knowledge and the Small Business Survival Committee.

The coalition said it wants to ensure the immediate availability of network DTV signals for all consumers nationwide. The group also said it wants to re-deploy analog spectrum dedicated for public safety and the return of analog spectrum by December 2006, and it wants the re-auction of that spectrum no later than December 2007.

Part of the coalition's launch included the unveiling of a website at: http://www.iwantmyhdtv.com. On the site's home page, visitors are encouraged to "see how the broadcasters are not meeting their public obligations to provide the signal, and how Congress can fix the problem by letting satellite TV deliver HDTV service to the unserved consumer."

In Washington, D.C., EchoStar has been pushing for legislation that would allow satellite TV companies to deliver digital distant network signals to consumers who cannot get a local broadcast DTV station. The effort has surfaced during hearings for the renewal of the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act and at the Federal Communications Commission.