STATEMENT OF 
COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. MCDOWELL
Re: Third Periodic Review of the Commission’s Rules and Policies Affecting the 
Conversion to Digital Television.
Today’s Order provides a progress report on the digital transition, establishes 
deadlines and procedures to ensure that the February 17, 2009 transition date is met and 
offers regulatory flexibility to broadcasters to facilitate their construction of digital 
facilities by the deadline.  The specifics set forth in the Order regarding when stations 
may and must cease analog operations, when they may and must begin operating on their 
post-transition digital channel, and what regulatory flexibility they have, will help ensure 
that the complicated, coordinated switch to DTV becomes a reality.   
Of course, the broadcasters and the Commission still have a tremendous amount 
of work to do before February 17, 2009.  The transition is an extremely complex 
undertaking that presents many challenges to the industry and to us as regulators.  Many 
broadcasters will want more flexibility than we grant them in this Order.  However, we 
have attempted to balance carefully their need for flexibility and certainty with the 
Commission’s obligation to oversee the transition for the benefit of over-the-air viewers.     
I thank and congratulation the Media Bureau staff for their tireless work on this 
Order.