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. ACRA requires that receivers be “capable of adequately receiving all frequencies allocated by the FCC to television broadcasting,” according to the Community Broadcasters Association (CBA).

Even after the February 17, 2009, cutover to digital TV by the nation’s full-power stations, which dominate television ratings, the generally smaller Class A and LPTV stations will continue analog broadcasts. LPTV channels, because they typically lack cable carriage rights, are much more dependent on antenna viewers than the big stations. If converter boxes do not pass through analog signals to viewers’ TV sets, the CBA fears the loss of low-power audiences when government-subsidized DTV converters go on sale in 2008.

“Converter boxes that block our analog LPTV signals will confuse viewers and significantly decrease LPTV viewership,” says Ronald Bruno, newly elected CBA president. “Every time a person gets a coupon, buys a converter box and plugs it in we lose that viewer. Without an analog receiver in the converter box, our industry is facing a dire situation.”

The FCC has yet to set a deadline for Class A and low-power stations to switch to digital broadcasts.

Earlier:
• Low-power TV plans for DTV transition
• LPTV an afterthought in the DTV transition

From our FAQ section:
• Are any TV stations exempt from the 2009 cutoff date?

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

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.

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.)

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable writes:

Minority advocates and Hill and FCC Democrats have been underwhelmed by the proposal, with some picking up on the phrase popularized by FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein that it is akin to spectrum “sharecropping.” But Martin likely has two other Republican votes for the plan.

Can Martin’s scheme deliver on its implied promise of more diverse programming? That will depend, in large measure, on which particular entities sign leases to rent part of the public airwaves from broadcasters. What troubles me is the wording of the FCC’s agenda—which appears to suggest that “new entrants” needn’t necessarily be small or minority- or woman-owned businesses at all.

For the plan to be effective, the commission must create conditions that encourage the granting of leases to diverse, locally based ownership groups that will serve the public interest.

Related:
• Are HDTV and multicasting competing technologies?

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.

Let me again emphasize that in the switch to digital broadcasts, most cable subscribers have little to fear: they will continue to receive local channels, as usual, via cable. But if small-town cable companies are exempted from the FCC requirement, their customers may suddenly require digital cable service, along with a digital cable box, to continue receiving all local stations on a standard analog TV, the kind most of us grew up with.

The FCC is indeed, as the senators contend, putting some low-budget, low-bandwidth cable systems in a bind. Until the commission releases the text of its actual order, though, it is difficult to say just how steep a hurdle the affected cable operators face in getting a waiver.

While the FCC’s “dual carriage” plan is a boon to broadcasters, some viewers won’t be happy with the results. Devoting two channel slots to each local station will likely have the effect of squeezing out some cable networks, especially on the smallest systems.

Remember, too, that the local stations the FCC is protecting—those that elect “must-carry” status—tend to be weaker ones anyway. (If a station is popular enough with viewers, it can usually negotiate a carriage agreement with the cable company, assuring its continued access to subscribers’ television screens under “retransmission consent” rules.)

In the worst case, the unfortunate customers of Joe and Mabel’s Bait and Cable of Bad Dog, WY, would be forced to give up Comedy Central to make room for channel 46, with its endless lineup of home-shopping shows and She’s the Sheriff reruns.

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.

The cutover to digital TV, with its myriad details, is difficult enough to explain to consumers. For months, Congress has been urging broadcasters to promote the change to DTV early and often. But if viewers cannot use their coupons at what is, for many households, the default store for electronics purchases, it undercuts the coupon program’s credibility.

The retailer told Congress this week that its computers and cash registers will not be ready to handle the government coupons on January 1. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released the government’s rules for the coupon program in March, so it’s not as if Best Buy hasn’t had enough time to prepare for the necessary changes to its systems.

In the retailer’s defense, it warned the government—in advance of its rulemaking—that it could not risk upgrading its point-of-sale systems between October and January “because these months include the heaviest shopping traffic and volume of transactions of the year.”

Still, I would ask, why didn’t they make the system upgrades in September and just schedule them to take effect four months later?

It was Congress that set January 1 as the kickoff for the converter box coupon program, so NTIA had no choice about the date. Recent rumblings paint a scenario in which consumers may not, after all, get coupons in January. The government’s contractor is supposed to begin accepting requests on New Year’s Day, but NTIA has indicated that coupons will not actually be mailed until eligible DTV converters are in local stores.

The Bush administration may have even signaled to retailers that if they weren’t ready in time, no big deal. Indeed, earlier this year the Commerce Department suggested as much, in the discussion section of its converter box coupon rules:

The [Digital TV] Act requires NTIA to accept requests for coupons between January 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009, and thus, it proposed that retailers be ready to redeem coupons starting January 1, 2008, consistent with the statutory guidance. NTIA expects widespread retailer POS system modifications to occur in the first quarter of 2008.

In other words, the news that stores may not be ready until April 1 is not really news to NTIA.

Earlier:
• Best Buy to sell DTV converter boxes
• Converter boxes at Best Buy…sort of
• Cheap converter boxes: Retailers not on board

• Link: TV Technology

• 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.

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.

Best Buy missed its original May 1, 2007, deadline for ending analog TV sales. The chain went on to be cited by the FCC for violating federal rules requiring that retailers display special signage, warning of the shutoff of analog broadcasts in 2009, in close proximity to analog-only TV sets.

“Best Buy is the first CE retailer to publicly announce an exit from the analog television business,” the company crowed in a press release last week. Stores were instructed to end analog TV sales on October 1, 2007, the company says.

I am pleased to see major retailers planning to stock DTV converters. Let’s hope they have them in stores in time for the launch of the federal coupon program on January 1, 2008. Converter boxes are not a big-ticket item, and the government’s program includes a long list of rules. For retailers, though, the final phase of the DTV transition should bring customers to their stores. Some converter-box shoppers may even walk out with flat-panel HDTVs.

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

• 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.”