Looks like House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) just realized what some broadcasters mean when they talk about leasing up to 7.5 Mb/s of the 19.4 Mb/s chunk of digital spectrum to potential datacasters.

Looks like House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) just realized what some broadcasters mean when they talk about leasing up to 7.5 Mb/s of the 19.4 Mb/s chunk of digital spectrum to potential datacasters. After a Bloomberg News story came out last Wednesday about Granite Broadcasting's intention to form a cooperative to lease spectrum (with a headline that read "Broadcast Digital Group to Hire Banker to Sell TV Spectrum"), Tauzin spokesman Ken Johnson got on the phone to reporters. "You can't sell what you don't own," Johnson fumed. "The spectrum was loaned to broadcasters, not bequeathed to them to use forever."