The End of Analog TV: Still a Lot of Unanswered Questions

As some may be aware, congress has approved a law that forces all television stations in the United States to turn off their analog transmissions on February 17, 2009. This is so the FCC can then auction off those channels 52-59 (the lower half of the 700 MHz band) for "other communications traffic" which means the cell phone companies can start transmitting TV on their little 2 inch screened phones, in addition to increased bandwidth for public safety communications (so they say).

The government has attempted to get consumers to understand what the transmission means by establishing a website to answer frequently asked questions. But a recent poll by the Association of Public Television Stations found that although public awareness of the digital transition was improving, 51% of the population still had "no idea" that this will be taking place.

And, while Congress has approved it and President Bush has signed it into law, there are still a lot of questions that have yet to be answered before the big switch-off can occur.

According to the DTV Transition Collation, TVs accessing pay television services such as cable or satellite aren't likely to be affected by the switch. However, in a recent article in TV Technology magazine, Echostar has said that it will not physically be able to transition from analog to digital on the cut-off date. DIRECTV has also said that it is going to need a "reasonable window after the transition date" in which to complete the satellite distribution element of the transition.

This is despite the fact that the FCC has said that there would be no extensions of time for TV stations to make the transitions. No exceptions will be made for stations that might experience technical or financial problems.

Television station General Managers are charged with the responsibility of supervising every aspect of the transition to digital television. But a recent LA Times article reported that congressional investigators have found that there is no single agency in charge of the transition.

At a recent forum presented by the Connecticut Broadcasters Association, several facts were pointed out:

-The FCC still has not issued final rulings on a number of issues TV stations must deal with in making the transition. -There are 20 million or so people that get their television signal through rabbit ears. On February 17, 2009, they will lose everything. And that also doesnt include some 65 million TV sets that may have the primary TV hooked up to DTV but the other one is not. (like in a Kitchen or bedroom). -Converters for analog sets to enable them to receive HDTV will not go on sale until January 2008. And it was discovered by lawmakers recently that this program might not be ready in time, even as the TV industry airs commercials announcing the date and retailers such as Best Buy line up to participate.

-The FCC still has not ruled on whether must-carry rules will require cable and satellite systems to carry all HD channels of stations. Many stations operate secondary channels offering local news and weather, such as WNBC channel 4 and WABC-TV channel 7 New York. This will put a huge strain on bandwidth issues that the cable and sat providers are working on. (DIRECTV is in the process of switching their entire system to MPEG-4 technology, which should be a big help, but again, we dont know if this is going to be ready in time)If stations have additional side channels, they are required to provide 3 hours of education "kidvid" programming for each stream of programming. Who is producing this content? Is it going to be re-runs of stuff everyone else is playing? This could be a great opportunity for producers to start looking at coming out with kids programming, but so far there hasnt been much activity.

The clock is ticking on this potential time bomb for broadcasters. The FCC says that this transition will be a significant bonus for consumers, but with no governing direction and some serious questions left unanswered, its going to make for some big dilemmas very soon.