Digital TV Facts: The Latest

Executives from industries involved in the digital TV transition will participate in a CEO-level panel discussion at a National Telecommunications and Information Administration public meeting this fall. The Washington meeting will discuss NTIA’s public information campaign about the DTV converter box coupon program.

More than a dozen companies and organizations will display “products and services to enable consumers to make a smooth digital transition,” said NTIA Administrator John M. R. Kneuer, in testimony for yesterday’s Senate Commerce meeting. The product expo will be held in the Department of Commerce lobby.

The September 25 meeting will include questions from the public. Want to submit written questions? Email Francine Jefferson at NTIA.

Related:
• DTV transition meeting: Speakers announced

The shutdown of analog television broadcasts in 2009 offers “high potential for a train wreck,” according to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). Is the digital TV transition a disaster in the making?

It’s still too early to tell. Alarm bells were rung at today’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, where an AARP official raised the prospect of senior citizens losing their television service and taking it out on Congress. That’s exactly what would happen, too, if we switched over tomorrow. Surveys continue to show low levels of awareness about what will happen on February 17, 2009, when over-the-air broadcasters will complete the change to digital TV. Personally, I’m not despairing—not yet.
Read the rest of this entry »

• Patients can make doctor’s appointments via internet-connected digital TV converter boxes—in Britain.

• From The Digital TV Brief: NTIA plans a public meeting about its DTV converter box coupon program.

• The digital TV transition could be “the mother of all catalysts for Best Buy.”

• BlogHer asks: Does the switch to DTV undercut the rationale for reviving the Fairness Doctrine?

Samsung’s DTV converter box, debuting at about $75, will be sold initially through online retailers, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

Digital-to-analog converter boxes will allow owners of conventional TVs to continue watching over-the-air channels after analog broadcasts end on February 17, 2009.

Prices for competing DTV converters from LG and RCA are expected to be in the $60 range.

[Samsung’s Rich] Long imagines the price dropping by $10 in summer 2008 and another $10 that fall. “I expect we’ll do 70% of our sales in the backend [of ‘08].”

The Samsung DTV box should be available (according to an earlier announcement) in time for the federal government’s DTV converter box coupon program, which launches in January 2008.

Earlier:
• Cheap converter boxes: Retailers not on board
• RCA slashes price on DTV converter box
• LG digital converter box due in 2008

• Link: B&C

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?
Read the rest of this entry »

“What this country needs,” in the words of Thomas Riley Marshall, “is a really good five-cent cigar.” Those words were said in 1917, when Marshall was Woodrow Wilson’s vice president. But America’s longing for bargain-priced consumer products endures. Today we’re waiting for an affordably priced, cigar box-sized device—the digital TV converter.

A DTV converter box hooks up to an antenna-equipped analog TV, allowing it to display digital channels. Several electronics manufacturers have signaled plans to market low-priced converter boxes, which consumers can purchase using $40-off coupons from the U.S. government. The subsidy program begins in January 2008. Thomson announced plans for an RCA converter box, initially priced at $125, in 2005. Anticipated prices for digital TV adapters have now dropped to the $60 range.

The question is, where are they?
Read the rest of this entry »

Should you still buy an analog TV? Stores are marking them down and clearing them out, making way for more digital televisions. The DTV transition will wrap up on February 17, 2009, and if you want a “classic-style” TV, this may be your last chance.

Let me say this upfront: I’ll pass on this deal. The value proposition of an obsolete TV set just doesn’t move me.

Granted, an old-technology TV isn’t completely worthless. Read the rest of this entry »

Q. Will the government provide coupons worth $40 off the purchase of a cable box?

A. No, the coupons are not for cable boxes.

Two stories about set-top boxes have been in the news recently. Let’s untangle them, shall we?

The first story concerns over-the-air viewers, who are being introduced to digital TV converter boxes. These devices are for antenna-equipped viewers who own conventional, non-digital TV sets. A DTV converter box (or “digital TV adapter”) will allow an analog TV to continue receiving local stations after the termination of analog television broadcasts in 2009. The federal government can help you with the cost on that one: Any U.S. household may request up to two digital converter coupons, each worth 40 bucks, beginning in 2008.

The other story is for digital cable subscribers. As of July 1, new FCC regulations concerning digital cable boxes took effect. The rules are intended to give consumers the option of purchasing their own cable boxes. If you can find anybody to sell you one, though, the government won’t subsidize the purchase. Those $40 coupons are only good toward DTV converter boxes, not cable boxes.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you suspect violations of the FCC’s digital tuner mandate or analog TV labeling requirements, you can file a report with the commission.

The DTV tuner rule prohibits the manufacture, import, or interstate shipment of any device containing an analog television tuner, unless it also contains a digital tuner. The tuner mandate took final effect on March 1, 2007.

Though stocks are dwindling, analog-only TVs remain on the shelves of many stores. At retail outlets, in catalogs or online, sellers are required to display a consumer alert, warning of the shutdown of analog TV broadcasts on February 17, 2009.

Complaints may be filed via email sent to fccinfo@fcc.gov, or via phone (toll-free): 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322); TTY: 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322). To file online or by mail, see the FCC web site.

The list of citations on the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s DTV page has grown quite long. The only tuner-mandate enforcement actions shown are those from late May against Syntax-Brillian and Regent USA. But warnings about retail signage have gone out to many large retailers, including Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco, Toys ‘R’ Us and several others noted earlier. The enforcers are on the job, evidently, and they are to be commended.

At the bottom of the retail citation list is Nebraska Furniture Mart, a small chain of large-format home stores that may be familiar to readers of Berkshire Hathaway annual reports. The FCC, it seems, isn’t even afraid to go after generous billionaire Warren Buffett.

Elsewhere in Washington, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) decided earlier this year that it would not discriminate against the filthy rich. The federal agency made Bill Gates, Donald Trump and everyone else eligible for the federal DTV coupon program. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Buffett, a value investor with a reputation for frugality, writes in for his very own $40-off coupon.

DTV converter box prices are already plunging—and the product hasn’t even reached stores yet. Thomson dangled a hefty $200 introductory price for its RCA digital TV adapter in March. But that was before rival manufacturer LG announced that its converter box is expected to cost about $60. Today a Thomson spokesman confirmed to me what everyone, I imagine, has expected: RCA will drop its price to be in line with LG’s.
Read the rest of this entry »

A small cable operator wants the federal DTV coupon program to change—in a big way. Under the proposal,

a broadcast-only home that obtained a $40 coupon to buy a digital-to-analog converter box under the federal subsidy program would receive free analog-basic cable for seven years on every TV set in the home, with free installation.

Providing free cable, instead of inexpensive DTV converter boxes, would constitute a radical overhaul of the coupon program. The plan, from Massillon Cable TV of Massillon, Ohio, is utterly thought-provoking. It merits serious discussion, I would argue, ignoring for the moment the small fact that it is doomed.

If you just want to participate in the coupon program, it almost certainly won’t change because of this proposal. Have a look at our DTV coupon section instead:

• DTV converter box coupons

But if you care to reimagine the future of local television, read on. Read the rest of this entry »

Tell your viewers about the digital TV transition, or lose your license.

That’s the choice broadcasters might face, under an FCC proposal linking DTV consumer education responsibilities to license renewals. (While FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is hauling out the regulatory big guns—rhetorically, at least—I would note that it’s pretty darn difficult these days to actually lose a broadcasting license. I wish the FCC would also require broadcasters to inform citizens about what is happening in their own communities.)

Martin described the plan in a written response to inquiries from Democratic Reps. John Dingell and Ed Markey. Proposed requirements on station owners, as well as cable companies and retailers, include

mandatory reporting on consumer education efforts; periodic public service announcements and rolling scrolls by broadcasters; cable bill stuffers with information on the transition; mandatory transition information included with receiver sales; [and] mandatory retailer reporting of training for employees selling converter boxes.

Martin defended the commission’s efforts on the conversion to digital TV, saying its efforts would intensify if Congress would cough up the $1.5 million requested by the FCC for its consumer-information campaign.

He also said it would look to place stories in major media outlets about the transition, including perhaps even video news releases. Martin said the commission wanted to “develop a contract with a news feature service for developing and distributing periodic articles and TV and radio features regarding the transition to digital.”

Video news releases? Why can’t the FCC simply make its officials and staff experts available to the news media and conduct outreach efforts—they, after all, have knowledge and expertise about this subject. The last thing we need is for the federal government to borrow more money to hire more contractors to create more fake news.

Earlier:
• Government’s fake news targeted by telecom bill

• Link: Broadcasting & Cable