FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is still looking for a third vote for rules requiring cable operators to carry broadcasters' digital multicast channels.

In a 14-page letter to the two chief communications policymakers in the House—John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Martin says mandatory carriage of multicast signals is "still pending before my colleagues."

He argues that such rules would "advance the digital transition by facilitating the ability of broadcasters to provide more programming choices, thus making it a smoother process for consumers."

Written in response to the lawmakers, the letter is a lengthy discussion of all the commission is doing to insure that TV stations' switch from analog to digital broadcasting on Feb. 17, 2009, will occur without a hitch.

As he notes in the letter, Martin circulated the multicast must-carry proposal to the other commissioners last year.

What he doesn't say is that in June 2006 he scheduled the proposal for a vote, but then abruptly yanked it from the FCC open meeting agenda after learning that he didn't have the necessary third vote to adopt it.

Martin apparently thought that then newly minted commissioner Robert McDowell would supply the third vote to go along with his and that of fellow Republican Deborah Taylor Tate. But McDowell balked and has since said he doesn't favor the proposal.

The two Democrats on the commissioners would vote for must carry, but not without tying it to concrete public interest obligations on broadcasters.

In the letter, Martin also reveals that he has circulated to the other commissioner a proposal that would require broadcasters, cable operators and set manufacturers to take a number of steps to educate the public about the digital transition.

Among other things, the proposal would require broadcasters to air PSAs and a “rolling scroll” about the digital transition and report every 90 on the “time, frequency and content” of the PSAs.

Cable operators would be required to put insert flyers in their bills, and set manufacturers have to include information with all TV sets that they sell.