Digital TV Facts: The Latest

Television viewers may struggle with reception problems on certain channels after the digital TV transition is completed in 2009, recent comments filed with the FCC by broadcasters suggest. Station owners moving DTV broadcasts from a UHF channel back to a VHF channel previously used for analog TV are concerned about losing audiences after the transition, explains Doug Lung, Telemundo Group vice president of engineering, in his latest column. (VHF channels are numbered 2 through 13; channels 14 and up are UHF.)

VHF stations are asking the FCC to reconsider technical rules affecting how their signals are broadcast, including limits concerning interference with other signals. The current limits would force some stations to operate at reduced power, “affecting their ability to cover their market unless interference limits are relaxed or they are allowed to change to another channel post-transition,” Lung writes.

In the DTV era, the “low VHF” band—channels 2 through 6—is no longer a desirable neighborhood for most broadcasters, given its susceptibility to interference. Just 46 stations were awarded low-VHF channels in the FCC channel-election process. The auction of soon-to-be retired television airwaves in the 700 MHz band, scheduled for Jan. 16, 2008, is typically viewed as the last important spectrum auction for decades to come. But if broadcasters are running away from low-VHF channels (or the FCC is chasing them away), perhaps an additional chunk of the public airwaves will go on the block within a few years.

Viewers in the New York metropolitan area may also face unreliable reception on channels numbered between 7 and 13—the “high VHF” band. Stations broadcasting from the Freedom Tower on those channels will be limited to an effective radiated power of about 3.5 kW, according to Lung. Rural viewers with 30-foot antennas may have acceptable reception, he suggests, but urban viewers with rabbit ears atop their sets may not be so lucky.

The FCC deadline for comments responding to its Third Periodic Review of the DTV transition is August 30.

Earlier:
• DTV channels will move, even if we don’t
• DTV channels: Time to start over?
• Changing channels: FCC releases national DTV list

• Link: TV Technology