Today is the day most Americans were supposed to begin to watch digital broadcasts on their televisions. However, Congress voted a couple of weeks ago to delay the switch until June 12. This threw another monkey wrench into what has already been a very confusing ordeal for many technically challenged Americans who don't want to risk missing Wheel of Fortune every night.
In delaying the changeover, Congress put a provision into the bill which said local stations could ask for permission to go digital either on or BEFORE the original February 17 date. To date, there are nearly 500 stations that have already turned digital, or who have requested to go digital early. To see a list of those stations, click here (you'll need Microsoft Excel or equivalent).
Most of the stations listed are in small markets where they've determined that less than 1% of the area population isn't ready for the digital switchover. After the delay bill was signed by President Obama, a number of stations in mid-to-large markets announced they would go ahead with their planned switchover. However, public and government pressure forced many of these stations to back down from asking the FCC to make the change.
Some of the stations that either have or who will go digital today will continue to broadcast a "night light" screen on their old analog channel for the people that do not have the analog converter boxes. This "night light" will say something along the lines of "If you can see this, you do not have a digital converter." The message will include a phone number to call for more information on how to get a digital converter box for their analog television. If every television station in a given market goes digital today, they must ensure that for 60 days after Feb. 17 at least one station in the market will continue to provide analog local news, public affairs, and emergency programming.
A dealer friend of mine told me that he thinks having the whole country change at once is a bad idea. He thinks the FCC call centers will be inundated with phone calls from frustrated viewers who are having trouble getting a digital signal on their analog sets. He said, "You know, allowing some markets to go digital on February 17 will help the Feds gauge how much problems they're going to see on June 12." He said a rolling regional changeover would have been the way to handle it, starting in the Midwest, Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions because the least amount of people live in those areas. That way, the FCC would have seen what they were up against and could tweak the changeover policies and ramp up for better service when larger areas came on line with digital broadcasts.
There's been a lot of debate as to whether or not the Federal Government did a good enough job in preparing the public for the initial February 17 changeover. I think they have - and they haven't. As I said in an earlier post, I think you have to be living in a cave to not know that there was going to be a drop-dead date for the analog to digital switch. I think the Feds - along with local television stations - have done a remarkable job in getting the word out. Where I feel the Feds failed was to mention, "Oh, by the way - you may have to get a new antenna in order to pick up the digital broadcasts."
Most people who have bought the analog to digital conversion boxes have antennas that work fine. But I'm beginning to hear horror stories from some of my dealers about how some people feel they're getting ripped off because they thought they could get the converter boxes, hook it up to the television and begin to watch their programs with no interruptions. It turns out their antennas may work with a couple of the digital channels, but not all. Then they have to spend an additional $75 to $100 bucks on an antenna to get all the channels. That's where I think the Federal Government fell short in spreading the message about the conversion.
Another problem that's popped up in the conversion is that the message evidently hasn't gotten out to Hispanic viewers very well. The largest metropolitan areas that have been identified as having the most viewers not ready for the digital switchover are Albuquerque-Santa Fe, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix and San Diego - all of which have large Hispanic populations. All of these metro areas have been deemed "entirely unready" for the digital transition by the FCC.
I've also been hearing reports that in addition to the lack of $40 coupons available to help defray the costs of the converter boxes, the FCC says there is now a shortage of converter boxes. To this I say, "Bullshit!" In my recent travels, I have walked into big box stores such as Best Buy, Target and Tiger Direct and have seen piles of converter boxes. I've talked with some of my specialty audio/video dealers who have told me that while they don't carry the converter boxes, they can get them for their customers in a day or two from a distributor. Congress already screwed up the coupon program by not allocating more money for the program. But now they're trying to say there's not enough converter boxes and may not be until April. Well, my bullshit detector is red-lining on that one.
As I've pointed out in earlier posts, the delay to convert to all digital television broadcasts are holding up some companies who want to use the analog channel bands they bought for new features and broadband communications. Not only is it costing them millions of dollars of lost revenue, the delay is also costing a number of stations in mid to large markets a trunk full of money in having to continue to broadcast both an analog and digital signal up to the June 12 date.
The one saving grace through all of this is that in order for the delay to go through, Congress had to agree that there would NOT be another extension past the June 12 date. While stations in the markets that won't turn digital until then will continue to educate the public on the transition, by the time June rolls around their message will change to the old adage, "If you snooze, you lose."
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