Broadcast Services; Digital Television

This document resolves a number of petitions for reconsideration of the Federal Communications Commissions' Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making (R&O). This document addresses a number of issues related to the conversion of the nation's broadcast television system from analog to digital television (DTV), including when to require election by licensees of their post- transition DTV channel, whether to require replication by DTV licensees of their NTSC Grade B service contours, whether to require DTV licensees to place enhanced service contours over their principal communities, and how to process mutually exclusive applications. The document also modifies the minimum hours of operation of certain DTV stations and establishes guidelines for television stations that may seek an extension of the deadlines for construction of DTV facilities. Our intention in revising some of the decisions reached in the Report and Order is to revise certain requirements that may be having the unintended consequence of hindering, rather than furthering, the DTV transition, and to prioritize those elements most important to the transition. The decisions reached in this document should maximize the number of DTV stations providing service to at least all consumers in their community of license by allowing DTV stations to go on the air initially with lower-powered, and therefore less expensive, facilities.