Senator John McCain will introduce his DTV transition bill next Tuesday, June 14. Heather Forsgren Weaver of RCR Wireless today reports that:

"Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and frequent critic of the TV broadcast lobby, will introduce a bill ... that will set the hard date for the completion of the digital TV transition at Jan. 1, 2009.

The McCain bill will be similar to legislation known as the Save Lives Act (the Spectrum Availability for Emergency Response and Law Enforcement to Improve Vital Emergency Services), which he introduced last year, but will reduce the set-top box subsidy to $463 million plus administrative costs. This amount is expected to cover the 9.2 million low-income homes that receive their TV signals from free-over-the-air broadcasting. Low income is defined as 200 percent below the poverty line."

The article details what could be the next step forward for the transition. Don't miss it.