Digital TV Facts: The Latest

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

Cable customers’ access to local stations after the digital TV transition is an agenda item for the FCC’s public meeting on September 11. A plan circulated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin reportedly envisions dual carriage of local channels in analog and digital form following the shutdown of analog broadcasts on February 17, 2009.

Dish Network’s parent company, meanwhile, is telling the FCC that it will be unable to provide all “must-carry” local stations in high-definition for its satellite TV customers in time for the 2009 deadline. EchoStar is also saying that it cannot make an overnight switch from analog to digital stations on February 17, 2009; the transition of 1,500 local signals nationwide could take months, the company contends.

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.

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.”
Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

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 »

The digital TV transition is the topic of a webinar for electronics retailers on Wed., June 27, at 2 p.m. ET.

An in-car mobile TV system from Sirius is slated to reach retailers by year-end. Programming on the three-channel, $19.95-per-month Sirius TV service targets children.

Sports leagues join broadcasters to lobby in Washington against allowing new unlicensed devices to use the public airwaves in broadcast TV-band “white spaces.”

$1 billion in spending on public safety communications, authorized by Congress as part of the DTV transition, must be awarded by Sept. 30.

Viewers who switch to digital TV are surprised, in some cases, to discover new channels available over the air—channels you can’t receive on an analog TV set. Each local DTV station is capable of delivering several channels instead of just one. They’re not just broadcasting, they’re multicasting.

Broadcasters are in no apparent rush to realize the full possibilities of the windfall (each station can now offer up to six channels) bestowed upon them by the FCC. Station owners want Congress or federal regulators to require cable TV companies to carry the new channels. But the efforts of broadcast lobbyists have been without success—thanks in part to cable lobbyists. Kyle McSlarrow, president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), seems to question whether broadcasters even have their heart in the battle for multicast carriage. 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 »

DirecTV’s expanded HBO HD channels debut in September.

New entry-level Bravia LCD TV line from Sony this summer; Philips expands 1080p flat-panel line, including 120Hz-refresh-rate technology.

New White House insider Ed Gillespie: Background includes lobbying for Qualcomm on DTV transition.

Civic groups urge FCC to adopt public-interest mandates for digital TV.

Democrat Dingell raps FCC for not naming a broadcaster to its DTV transition Consumer Advisory Committee.

GOP Senators back cable companies in auction of analog TV spectrum; but public-interest groups have a better plan.

Network neutrality: Last day to send comments to FCC is tomorrow.