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!

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.

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It’s hard to avoid Digital TV Transition ads these days. With less than two months till the nation’s TV stations switch to a new, all-digital transmission scheme, broadcasters and government officials are running thousands of public service advertisements warning viewers that unless they take action, millions of sets may turn into doorstops on Feb. 17.

Some stations are even running half-hour shows discussing the DTV transition and telling viewers how to buy and install converter boxes for their existing analog sets. Others are telling people how to find new digital TVs with tuners that can receive the new signals on their own.

All these ads make the process look deceptively easy, but unfortunately, it won’t be easy for everyone. In fact, after Feb. 17, a small but significant minority of viewers will never again be able to get the same variety of programming they get now. Some will have to spend hundreds of dollars for rotating outdoor antennas to match the reception they get today from the $3 rabbit ears that came with their old analog TV sets. Even then, the dirty little secret of digital broadcasting is that it won’t reach as many TV sets as the analog system we’ve used for the better part of seven decades.

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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.)

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.