I get yet another chance to say I-told-you-so. A couple of years ago, when I first started writing about this subject, I predicted that Congress wouldn’t have the guts to go through with a scheme it approved in 1996 to replace analog TV broadcasts with new digital technology. At least not with the kind of underfunded, rinky-dink program lawmakers concocted to allegedly protect the poor and elderly viewers who have the most to lose from the switchover.

Only than a week after House Republicans blocked a four-month delay in the nation’s switch from analog to digital TV broadcasts, Democrats revived the measure Wednesday and pushed it through the lower chamber, assuring that millions of analog TVs will not go dark on Feb. 17.

By a 264-158 vote, largely along party lines, the House enacted a Senate-passed measure extending the deadline until June 12. The Obama administrations supports the bill and the President is expected to sign it quickly.

The wording allows local broadcasters to turn off their analog transmitters before June 12 if they notify the FCC and the public well in advance. Most have been broadcasting on both analog and digital transmitters for more than a year now, at considerable expense, and few have budgeted for the extra kilowatts they’ll need to keep both signals going through the extension.  But it’s doubtful many stations will jump in advance of deadline and risk losing a chunk of their audience to competitors who keep both transmitters humming. › Continue reading…

If your grandma’s TV goes dark on Feb. 17, you can thank Republicans in the House of Representatives, who have effectively killed off an attempt to postpone the switch to all-digital television by four months.

The measure, already approved unanimously by the Senate, had plenty of votes to pass in the House under normal circumstances. But yesterday’s  215-to-168 margin, largely split along party lines, was shy of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the bill immediately as a special measure.

If House Democrats backed by the Obama administration decide to try again, the measure delaying the switchover till June 12 could come up again next week as a regular bill – with passage virtually assured. If it doesn’t, the analog TVs in an estimated 6.5 million households will become doorstops on Feb. 17 when broadcasters turn off their analog transmitters in favor of a new generation of digital broadcasts.

Congress set the official Feb. 17 deadline back in 2005, when it also established a $1.34 billion program to provide $40 coupons to help Americans offset the cost of converter boxes that will allow  existing analog TVs to receive digital broadcasts.

This was not exactly an act of largesse, considering that the entire switchover scheme was forced on an unsuspecting public in 1996 by a bipartisan cabal of lawmakers, bureaucrats, cell phone companies, broadcasters and overseas TV equipment makers who saw an opportunity to pick our pockets in the name of technological progress. There was virtually no consumer demand for digital TV, and the most of the billions of dollars consumers have spent on new digital equipment to deal with the switchover have gone to bolster the bottom lines of foreign manufacturers — and increase an already staggering U.S. trade deficit.

Making a bad situation worse, the coupon program ran out of money — or depending on how you look at things, the program can’t use a big chunk of the money appropriated for it until unused coupons it has already issued reach their 90-day expiration date. New coupons can then be sent to millions on of Americans who found themselves on a waiting list, but few are likely to get them by the Feb. 17 cutoff.

Most of the 6.5 million households that will go dark are occupied by the poor and elderly. These constitutencies haven’t exactly turned out in droves for Republicans in recent elections, which may explain the GOP’s willingness to cut them off. In fact, Republicans opposed Democratic attempts to provide more money back in 2005 when the transition legislation was enacted. So it seems ab it strange that a group of GOP lawmakers has sponsored a bill providing an extra $250 million for converters now that it’s too late. Conscience money? Or am I just a cynic?

On the other side of the issue are most of the nation’s commercial broadcasters, who have been transmitting on both analog and digital systems for years and are anxious to turn off their expensive, power-hungry analog equipment. Many haven’t budgeted money to continue dual transmissions after Feb. 17 (although a lot of skeptics like me have predicted just the kind of imbroglio that’s now occurring).

Caught in the middle are the nation’s public television stations. Like their commercial counterparts, they’re spending big bucks they’d rather use elsewhere on electricty to keep both broadcast systems running. But since the elderly make up a disproportionate chunk of their audience (they love PBS news and watch it over analog TVs with antenannas), public stations are likely to suffer the largest proportional loss of viewership when the switchover actually occurs.

Meanwhile, no one knows how many millions of sets — either native digital models or analog sets with converters — will lose at least one of the stations its owners now receive. When you get to the bottom line, digital signals aren’t as powerful as analog broadcasts — and they’re more subject to crosstalk and interference from hills, towers and tall buildings. In my tests with a variety of equipment in several locations around Baltimore and Washington, I couldn’t find a single combination of TV, indoor antenna and coverter box that consistently brought in all the digital stations that were available in analog. That may generate even more complaints than the lack of converter boxes.

Stay tuned!

The Washington Post had an interesting piece about disarray in the Digital TV transition program – it’s a good primer about what can go wrong when the government decides to dictate what should be decided in the marketplace.

The whole issue could turn into a nasty, partisan political battle if Republicans continue to oppose an increase in funding for a program that provides coupons worth $40 each toward the purchase of converter boxes that allow traditional analog sets to receive digital broadcasts. GOP lawmakers blocked attempts by Democrats to fund the program at higher levels when the established it several years ago. Now that money has run out (after coupons worth $1.34 billion were been distributed), millions of applicants who want them are stuck on a waiting list. There’s almost no way Congress can act in time to get coupons to them before America’s TV stations turn off their analog transmitters and switch to all-digital broadcasts on Feb. 17.

 That’s one reason why the Obama transition team has asked Congress to delay the transition past Feb. 17:  lawmakers established that deadline with legislation back in 2005 when plans for the switchover were finalized. So far, ABC is the only network to ask for a reprieve, but with the prospect of millions of sets going dark next month, they’re likely change their tune soon.

Here are the latest converter stats from the National Telecommunications Infrastructure Administration:

 Approved households that have applied = 25,332,945
Coupons requested = 47,412,320
Coupons mailed = 43,052,609
Coupons expired = 13,394,773
Coupons redeemed = 18,858,516
Coupons on wait list = 948,657
Coupons active = 10,799,320
Average daily orders last 30 days = 265,507
Average daily orders last week = 360,759
Participating retailers / Locations = 2,366 / 34,417

Meanwhile, the government and broadcasters are quietly stepping up attempts to convince viewers to consider buying new antennas to use with digital TVs and converter boxes that get signals over-the-air. The government offers no help for that, even though it may cost vany viewers hundreds or thousands of dollars for an outside antenna they’ll need to bring in the same channels they got before.

 The weekly DTV transtion press release I get from the National Association of Broadcasters offers this suggestion: “By moving your antenna to a spot just three feet away from where it currently sits can greatly improve your DTV reception.” It didn’t work in my trials. A lot of people are going to be very upset when they turn on their converters or new digital sets and realize that a lot of their old channels have disappeared. That’s because digital signals get bent out of shape by hills, buildings, towers, high bridges and other manmade objects. If you get signals over-the-air,  with an antenna, check out www.antennaweb.org for advice on buying a new one. Stay tuned (if you can).

Will you lose your signal?

Yes, I told you so. If you’ve followed my rants on the subject, you’ll remember my prediction at the transition to digital TV – just five weeks away as I write this – would be a disaster in the making. Well, that prediction is coming true.

After months of assurances from government agencies and industry flacks that plans for the DTV transition were going great guns, President Elect Barrack Obama has asked Congress to delay the switchover, now scheduled for Feb. 17.

The reason: millions of perfectly good analog TVs will go dark because they can’t receive the new transmissions and won’t have converter boxes attached. Those are boxes the American public has to pay for – and a $1.34 billion subsidy program to help viewers buy them has run out of cash with more than 7 million households still at risk.

› Continue reading…

Worried about the details of making your ancient analog TV receive those new digital signals? So are lots of of other people. One of them is Spike Feresten, host of the eponymously named “Talk Show with Spike Feresten.” Particularly concerned with the effect of the transition on the elderly — who will bear a disproportionate share of the hassle and expense  — Spike produced this inspirational video on installing a DTV converter box. He only thought it was a parody.

Happy Holidays to all!

While most of the world was watched Barack Obama make history on Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission quietly voted for its own little revolution.

Despite furious lobbying by TV broadcasters, Broadway producers, Dolly Parton and rock band roadies everywhere, the panel approved a plan to open up the so-called “white spaces” between television channels for unlicensed wireless gadgets.

Dolly Parton and other show biz names objected to FCC White Space proposal.

Back in the dawn of television, the government left these little gaps in the TV spectrum because broadcast TV stations were so powerful – and the available technology was so limited – that engineers feared the stations would step on each others’ signals if they were too close together.

That issue became less important as equipment improved over the years, and it will change even more with the switch from analog broadcasting to a more efficient and precise digital system in February. For more about that, read my DTV Transition Q&A page.

A coalition of major industry players, including Google, Intel, Microsoft and Motorola, backed the plan, which they see opening up a whole new market for wireless Internet access. Because these white spaces are smack in the middle of the TV spectrum, signals in can travel considerable distances, opening up the possibility for relatively cheap, high-speed wireless Internet service in rural areas.

But TV broadcasters are still worried about newcomers with faulty equipment or intentions interfering with their frequencies, and the people who produce plays and concerts are furious. That’s because the wireless microphones they use every day use those very same frequencies. After an acrimonious battle and repeated tests by FCC l aboratories and a lobbying appeal by country legend Dolly Parton. She conceded that she knows nothing about the technology, but does know a thing or two about how important wireless mics are for musicians in concert. They’re the reason singers can prance all over the stage without worrying about tripping over a cord, and why Broadway musical stars don’t need penetrating “Broadway” voices any more.

In an attempt to pacify the theater and concert producers, the FCC is requiring manufacturers of equipment to set of databases with locations where wireless microphones are typically used, as well as sensors for wireless microphone transmissions. The theory: with current technology, the new wireless devices can avoid frequencies that are being used and switch to unoccupied channels.

With deep pockets on both sides, this isn’t likely to be the end of the issue. Here are good explanations from USA Today  and the Washington Post.

The National Association of Broadcasters’ Television Board of Directors is supporting legislation that would allow TV stations to continue transmitting emergency alerts and information about the digital TV transition over their analog channels for several weeks after the Feb. 19, 2009 switchover.

This is the first crack in the alliance between broadcasters and the government, which has been telling everyone how wonderfully the transition campaign has been going and resisting attempts to tinker with the deadline. The FCC, with congressional backing, has told broadcasters to turn off their analog transmitters Feb. 19.  Currently, local stations arebroadcasting simultaneously in both formats.

The change will leave millions of analog sets dark unless the owners have hooked up digital converter boxes. TV sets hooked to cable or satellite feeds — and 80 percent of American homes have at least one — will not be affected. Cable companies will continue to provide analog signals to their customers for several years, at least.

Millions who receive broadcasts over-the-air, with antennas, have bought converter boxes, but millions more haven’t gotten around to it yet. And 8 to 10 percent of Americans still aren’t aware of the switchover, according to the latest surveys.

There’s also evidence that even with converter boxes, 15 to 20 percent of over-the-air viewers won’t be able to get all the channels they get now unless they buy a new antenna — an expense that can run into hundreds of dollars.

One problem is that folks who buy converter boxes now won’t know for sure whether they’ll get all their channels until the day of the switchover. That’s because so many channels will be switching frequencies — in addition to using a new digital transmission system.
Because digital signals don’t always behave like analog transmissions, some digital signals that come in fine on the temporary frequencies local broadcasters are currently using may be not be strong enough on their permanent frequencies. Digital signals also suffer from the so-called “cliff” effect: if they’re strong enough, they produce superb images, but if they’re not, you won’t get anything on that channel.

Given these potential problems, it makes sense to give stations the option of continuing to broadcast emergency information and messages alerting viewers about the transition for some time after the official date. Aside from the fact that worried politicians want to squeeze the switchover between the Super Bowl and the NCAA basketball tournament, there’s no reason it has to be done in one day.

Unfortunately, the even if the bills (Senate 3663 and House Resolution 7013) become law, it won’t help all viewers. Stations that have chosen to broadcast digitally on the same frequency they used for analog broadcasts won’t be able to use both transmitters after the change.

“This voluntary commitment would apply only to stations where the continuation of the analog signal is technically feasible,” the NAB board said it a resolution approved on Wednesday, Oct. 15. “The NAB will work closely with the FCC in implementing a reasonable program taking into account local stations’ technology and market specifics.”

The legislation is sponsored by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.)

For months I’ve been getting complaints from readers who say some of their favorite cable TV channels are disappearing. Depending on where they live it may be Discovery, or MSNBC or some other cable-only channel with a dedicated,  if not overwhelmingly large following. The cable company tells customers it has moved the channel to its “digital tier.” If viewers want to  see the channel again, they’ll have to rent a digital cable box for $10 a month.

A lot of victims think this is part of the great DTV Switchover, and they blame the government. But it’s not. It’s a case of cable companies trying to wring a few extra dollars out of their subscribers without raising overall rates and free up more bandwidth for the high-definition broadcasts that their premium customers want. Here’s the story: › Continue reading…

Best Buy and Circuit City, two of the nation’s premier big box retailers have launched Web sites and/or blogs to help guide customers through the Digital TV Transition.

With less than six months until local broadcasters turn off the analog transmitters they’ve used for 60 years and switch to a new digital format, the business and government forces behind this craziness have gone into overdrive to spread information about the change.

At risk are 15 million American households that depend entirely on TVs with antennas that receive over-the-air transmissions, as opposed to cable, satellite, or fiber optic TV service. MIllions more with cable or satellite service on one TV have other sets that get broadcasts over-the-air. All of those non-cable/satellite sets need will converter boxes to receive new digital broadcasts — otherwise they’ll go dark on switchover day, Feb. 17, 2009.

TV Phone

One casualty of the DTV transition is the industry’s plan to popularize direct-to-phone TV broadcasts in the U.S. Although Verizon and AT&T both offer paid TV broadcasts on some models, the MediaFLO service is a limited repackaging of highlights from network and cable channels over a specialized UHF system that requires special hardware in the phone. It’s not a full, portable medium for real-time, network broadcasts of entertainment, news and sports. With analog broadcasts disappearing on Feb. 17, 2009, the technology will need some time to reshape itself.  Read the AP report.