Digital TV Facts: The Latest

DTV converter boxes may be in violation of FCC rules, low-power television (LPTV) broadcasters have charged in a complaint filed with the regulatory agency.

Digital-to-analog converter boxes are designed to smooth the transition to digital TV broadcasts in 2009. These devices, which allow over-the-air DTV signals to be viewed on old-technology televisions, violate the All-Channel Receiver Act (ACRA), an LPTV trade group argues. Read the rest of this post »

If the switch to digital TV in 2009 matters to anyone, it’s those folks who depend on an antenna (rather than a pay-TV service) for their viewing pleasure—especially the ones who still own traditional analog-only TV sets.

About 14 percent of U.S. households watch TV over the air exclusively. That’s 15.5 million households—according to the latest FCC report, anyway.

No one knows for sure, you see. Competing estimates:

• About 13.5 million antenna-TV households, says a Consumer Electronics Association survey.

• “Anywhere from 40 to 80 million households,” including TV sets in cable- or satellite-equipped homes that are not connected to the pay-TV service, according to figures cited by a Best Buy spokesman.

Related:
• Digital TV facts for over-the-air viewers

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s plan to give cable subscribers additional channels from local broadcasters fell off the commission’s agenda this week. But it may pop up again at the FCC’s December 18 public meeting, according to an AP report.

Martin promoted the idea that minority- and women-owned businesses (among others) would be able to lease DTV multicast channels from station owners. But a dozen Congressional Democrats, in a letter to the chairman, expressed skepticism:

“You have presented no evidence to support your assertion that multicast must-carry would promote program diversity and increase programming choices.”

Republican Martin would likely need support from his Democratic colleagues to enact multicast must-carry. But Democrat Michael Copps, who acknowledges ownership diversity as an urgent issue, suggested this week that the chairman was trying to ram the measure through.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s latest plan to force cable carriage of broadcasters’ multicast channels appears to be advancing. At its November 27 public meeting, the commission will address “initiatives designed to increase participation in the broadcasting industry by new entrants and small businesses, including minority- and women-owned businesses.”

Under a plan circulated by Martin, station owners would lease out some of their excess digital TV channel capacity to new participants, and cable companies would be required to add the channels to their systems. (With the move to DTV, each local station is capable of broadcasting separate programming over five or six channels simultaneously.)
Read the rest of this post »

For customers of small cable companies, the road to digital TV could get bumpier if seven senators can persuade their colleagues to overrule an FCC decision.

Federal regulators simplified the DTV transition for consumers in September, announcing that cable systems will be required to carry local stations in both analog and digital form after traditional analog broadcasts cease on February 17, 2009. The rule has an exception: Operators of small cable systems will be granted waivers—but only if they can prove their case to the FCC.

Now five Republicans and two Democrats are proposing “a blanket exemption for systems with less than 552 MHz of capacity or with 5,000 or fewer subscribers,” according to Multichannel News. This could complicate matters, albeit slightly.
Read the rest of this post »

If you expect to be shopping for a DTV converter box this winter, Best Buy may not be your best bet.

U.S. households can begin requesting $40-off coupons from the government in January 2008, and many owners of old analog TVs will be eager to redeem them. But Best Buy, the country’s largest consumer electronics retailer, may not be ready to accept the DTV coupons until “closer to April 1,” TV Technology reports.

A three-month delay from Best Buy is a major setback for the DTV transition.
Read the rest of this post »

• Consumers who don’t understand the digital TV transition “may be stampeded into making the wrong choice and spending a lot more money than they have to,” a consumer group official says.

• Movie studios oppose “digital cable ready plus” (DCR+), a two-way plug-and-play technology favored by the Consumer Electronics Association.

• Harris Corp. wins a technical Emmy award for its digital TV filtering technology.

Giving Credit Where [Partial] Credit Is Due Dept.: Best Buy announced Wednesday that it will carry DTV converter boxes and participate in the U.S. government $40-off coupon program next year (as we predicted in August). If you watch local stations over the air on an analog TV, finding a life-extending digital-to-analog converter for it in 2008 should not be the chore that it is today.

But if you don’t already own an obsolescent TV (or five), turns out you can’t buy one at Best Buy. The consumer electronics behemoth announced—again!—that its days of selling old-technology television sets are over. Read the rest of this post »

LG Electronics will sell DTV converter boxes under its Zenith brand, according to the Associated Press. Zenith, once the leading American TV manufacturer, was a pioneer in remote control and digital television technologies. Today, South Korea’s LG positions Zenith at the lower end of the U.S. consumer electronics market. With an estimated retail price of $60, a digital-to-analog converter box is a decidedly low-end (albeit useful) product, so perhaps the Zenith tag should not come as a surprise.

LG is one of several electronics firms that will offer converter boxes. These small devices will allow millions of traditional TV sets to continue displaying over-the-air broadcasts after the analog TV shutdown in 2009. Beginning in January 2008, any U.S. household can request up to two coupons from the federal government, each worth $40 off the price of a DTV converter.

Older Americans are expected to be a key segment of the converter-box market, and some late-adopters may still look to Zenith as a familiar and trusted name.

• Link: Houston Chronicle

• Will “white space” broadband devices actually protect your digital TV reception? Doug Lung, offering a technical analysis of the claims, remains unconvinced. Even cable TV reception could be threatened, he writes.

• The Center for American Progress wants Congress to (finally) address the public-interest obligations of DTV broadcasters. But FCC Chairman Martin does not want to impose further requirements.

• Consumer Federation of America chief Mark Cooper blasts cable industry’s DTV transition commercials, calling them “awful and disgusting.”

Last week, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) called for a formalized public-private partnership to promote the digital TV transition. Add him to the list of lawmakers suggesting the federal government isn’t doing enough to ensure a successful DTV switchover in 2009. But even in the absence of the kind of task force Kohl’s bill would mandate, coordinated public and private efforts to inform Americans about digital TV are moving forward.
Read the rest of this post »

RadioShack will sell converter boxes for analog TVs, and the 4,400-store electronics chain will accept government coupons intended to help American consumers pay for the devices. The commitment from a well-known national retailer, announced Tuesday by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), is a boost for the federal DTV coupon program.

A DTV converter box will allow a conventional television set to continue receiving over-the-air broadcasts following the switchoff of analog TV signals on February 17, 2009. Beginning in January 2008, any U.S. household can request up to two $40-off coupons from NTIA, an agency of the Commerce Department.

I’m not surprised that RadioShack will carry the coupon-eligible digital-to-analog converters. The retailer’s small stores are known for the breadth of their product lines, and they have carried similar digital TV converter boxes in the past. The chain will also train its sales staff on the digital TV transition and the coupon program, and will inform consumers about the switchover.