STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS
Re:  In the Matter of Carriage of Digital Television Broadcast Signals: Amendment to Part 76 of 
the Commission’s Rules; Implementation of the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999; 
Local Broadcast Signal Carriage Issues and Retransmission Consent Issues – Second Report and 
Order, and Memorandum and Opinion and Order, CS Docket 00-96 and CSR-5978-M
I support today’s Order, but not without some frustration that the delayed phase-in of 
local HD carriage on DBS may at least partly be due to our own inaction. 
This item acts on a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking pending since 2001.  In 
January 2003, Echostar briefed the FCC in detail about the potential technical impact of a local 
HD carriage requirement; DirecTV made a similar presentation to the FCC in October 2004.  Had 
we taken proactive steps then, we might find ourselves in a very different factual circumstance 
than we find ourselves today.  DirecTV, for instance, is scheduled to launch its D-11 satellite this 
week and its D-12 satellite in 2009.  Some of this new capacity will be used for national HD 
service and some will provide local HD service via spot beams.  The spot beams for these 
satellites have all been designed and cannot now be changed.  Thus, DirecTV asserts—and 
Echostar makes a similar case—that it must design, build and launch at least one additional 
satellite in order to comply with today’s HD mandate—hence the four-year timetable.
Had we acted earlier, could DirecTV and Echostar have designed their satellites 
differently in order to permit full local HD carriage before 2013?  We may never know.  One 
thing we do know is that, by waiting to act, we have rendered the question moot. 
One last point.  Now that we have addressed the impact of capacity constraints on DBS 
carriage obligations, I hope we turn quickly to the carriage issues raised by small cable operators.  
And my hope is that we approach those issues with the same sense of realism that we exhibit 
here.