Digital TV Facts: The Latest

Cable TV customers who have not upgraded to digital service would nonetheless enjoy continued access to local stations, under a plan circulated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Without federal action, local channels could disappear from the television screens of some analog cable subscribers following the switchoff of analog TV broadcasts on February 17, 2009. While cable companies have proposed their own remedies to this pressing problem, the issue has long remained on the back burner for regulators.

If Martin’s plan is approved by the commission, cable systems will carry required local stations in both digital and analog form starting in early 2009, Ted Hearn of Multichannel News reports. Subscribers to traditional analog cable service would be able to receive local channels as they do today. Unless regulators act, some cable customers who own conventional analog television sets will need to get digital cable boxes for local-channel access.
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A cable company scheme to make hay from the digital TV transition has entered a new phase. An Ohio cable operator, as you may recall, floated a plan to offer local channels for free via cable TV in lieu of government-discounted DTV converter boxes. Two other small cable companies are now on board, TWICE reports, and a web site has been launched under the banner of the “Save Our Sets Coalition” (SOS).

As I’ve said before, this is an innovative plan. But the air of disingenuousness about it is just getting thicker. Read the rest of this entry »

• The digital TV transition poses problems for people with disabilities, coalition tells FCC. Concerns include closed captioning and video description services.

• DirecTV must stop airing ads claiming consumers prefer its picture quality over cable; court’s preliminary injunction cites “unfairly designed” survey that compared digital satellite TV with analog cable.

• The public owns the airwaves, yet FCC digital TV rules fail to address broadcasters’ obligations to local communities, public advocacy groups complain. FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps agrees [so do I! –Ed.], says the commission has been “asleep at the switch.”

• FCC comment deadlines: Comments on the FCC’s Digital Television Consumer Education Initiative are due September 17. Reply comments must be filed by October 1.

• The U.S. government has “grossly underestimated” the number of DTV converter boxes Americans will need, says PBS President Paula Kerger.

• Microsoft defends “white space” broadband prototype devices against charges of interfering with digital TV broadcasts. The company cites defects in a previously tested device…and submits a new one to the FCC.

• DirecTV and Time Warner Cable settle dispute over HDTV quality claims.

• ATSC wants the FCC to update its digital TV standard, following the standards body’s six-part framework.

NTIA’s fall public meeting on the digital TV transition will present panel sessions featuring industry and advocacy-group leaders. Confirmed speakers include:

• David Rehr, National Association of Broadcasters
• Kyle McSlarrow, National Cable and Telecommunications Association
• Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Association
• Loriene Roy, American Library Association

The Digital Television Transition Public Meeting, Expo and Networking Event will be hosted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the federal agency responsible for the DTV converter box coupon program.

Organizations and companies participating in the DTV expo include the FCC, television and consumer electronics trade groups, DirecTV, EchoStar and Verizon FiOS.

The event takes place on September 25 at Commerce Department headquarters in Washington.

Earlier:
• CEOs take stage at DTV coupon meeting

• Link: NTIA

Your local station should now know which channel to call home after the transition to digital TV is completed. The FCC announced final DTV channel assignments for more than 1,800 stations yesterday.

After analog TV broadcasts terminate on February 17, 2009, many stations will assume new channel numbers. No worries, though (well, almost; I’ll explain later). Surprisingly, viewers won’t generally need to learn new channel lineups, because stations will retain their customary on-air identities. Channel 11 will still promote itself as channel 11, for instance, even if it has moved to channel 32.

The familiar channel numbers from the analog era can be preserved to a large extent, thanks to “channel virtualization.”
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Shocking news today for suburban Detroit readers: HDTV broadcasts can be received with an antenna! For free!

Cable TV companies have allegedly conspired to hide this fact, along with the existence of free DTV multicast channels—but The Oakland Press is now setting the record straight.

The newspaper headline is Onionesque: “High-definition TV available over the air, attorney says.”

Nonetheless, it’s true. Sadly, to many readers, it is no doubt news.

Here’s another fact The Press should stress: If you want to watch high-definition shows in actual HD, you will need an HDTV.

• Link: The Oakland Press

Multichannel News covers The Independent Show, a conference of smaller cable operators:

• Public TV’s additional “multicast” channels, available in many communities, should appear in more cable households, under a tentative deal between the American Cable Association (ACA) and public TV stations.

• Changes to distant-channel rules, under the proposed Television Freedom Act of 2007, win the ACA’s support. The bill would allow cable and satellite TV companies to carry local TV stations from adjacent markets.

• “Downloadable security” (presumed successor to the CableCARD) has a deployment schedule that overlaps with the February 17, 2009, shutdown of analog TV broadcasts.

• The FCC proposes [pdf] digital TV consumer information initiatives; television, consumer electronics and retail industries may be affected.

• Capitol Broadcasting launches its own promotional spots for the DTV transition.

• Customers of smaller cable TV companies want more HDTV…and they especially want local channels in HD.

More on the Digital Television Congressional Caucus and its lobbying ties: The National Cable & Telecommunications Association will present its new “Consumer Champion Award” to Reps. Rick Boucher (D.-Va.) and Greg Walden (R.-Ore.) today, Multichannel News reports. The award recognizes their efforts to inform consumers about the digital TV transition.

The campaigns of Boucher and Walden, co-founders of the DTV Caucus, each received $10,000 in contributions linked to NCTA during the 2006 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Earlier:
• House DTV Caucus and its lobbying ties

• Links: Multichannel; opensecrets.org: Boucher, Walden

News roundup time, video rangers:

• Spectrum wars: The broadcasting lobby isn’t so powerful after all, Drew Clark maintains. Oh, and forget about “white spaces.” What would it take to make them vacate the airwaves?

• DTV communications job: Powerful or not, the National Association of Broadcasters seeks a communications coordinator for the digital television transition.

• Must-carry-go-round: At Multichannel News, Todd Spangler on dual must-carry and Tom Steinert-Threlkeld on multicast must-carry.

• EU pushes mobile DTV: The European Commission adopts a mobile TV strategy encouraging the use of DVB-H as a single European standard.

• Goin’ all-digital in Kentucky: WLJC-TV of Beattybille, Ky., will cease broadcasting on analog channel 65 and operate WLJC-DT as a single channel, digital-only station on DTV channel 7 [pdf].

As momentum builds for the digital TV transition, Motorola has been notably absent from the DTV converter box party. Consumer electronics firms that have announced digital-to-analog converter boxes include LG, Thomson/RCA, Samsung and Jasco/GE. The devices, sometimes called digital TV adapters, will allow conventional television sets to continue taking in over-the-air broadcasts after the analog TV shutdown on February 17, 2009.

Motorola announced today that it will combine its TV set-top box business with its network equipment business, according to Reuters. The company, along with Scientific Atlanta, is a leading maker of cable boxes. Motorola demonstrated a prototype cable box with built-in digital broadcast tuner at the 2007 Cable Show in May.

But what about DTV converter boxes for antenna-only viewers?
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