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TechnoratiAmerica's DTV Transition Beset with Problems
On February 17, 2009, all full-power analog television broadcasts in the United States will cease and existing TV stations will begin broadcasting exclusively in a digital format. The switch to digital television (DTV) will free up frequencies for emergency uses and allow broadcasters to provide more programming for their viewers through "multicasting."
As a practical matter, people will need to subscribe to a cable or satellite television service, use a digital-ready TV set, or hook up a digital converter box to an analog TV set, in order to continue watching broadcast television.
Unfortunately, the number of people who stand to lose their access to TV programming in the coming DTV transition is considerable. Roughly 10 to 15 percent of all TV households (about 30 to 40 million people) still rely on over-the-air television, most of whom are senior citizens, poor, or non-English speakers. In a city like Chicago, with high poverty rates and a large immigrant population, some 20 percent of residents still use antenna-only TV and an estimated 230,000 households are completely unready for the conversion.
The federal government has launched a coupon program that allows each household to claim up to two $40 coupons to help offset the cost of digital converter boxes for those that can't afford them otherwise. But the coupons expire 90 days after issuance, and half of the more than 25 million people who have requested them have seen their coupons expire.
What's more, surveys show more than three-quarters of those who are interested in getting converter boxes are not aware of the coupon program.
Preliminary testing of digital-only TV broadcasting in the US has been all but non-existent. The sole switchover test, enacted in September in Wilmington, NC, amounts to a false positive, since 92 percent of the viewers impacted by the test already subscribe to cable. Across the country, there have been sporadic tests -- perhaps a minute or a few minutes at a time at various times and in various locales, but nothing systematic.
Outreach about the DTV conversion has been haphazard at best. For the most part, the FCC is counting on public service announcements (PSAs) voluntarily aired by broadcasters to inform viewers about the switch.
But only 13 percent of PSAs air during the most-watched hours of primetime, and PSAs make up only one half of 1 percent of all TV airtime.
In recent months, the FCC has partnered with senior centers and community groups to stage a series of "town hall" meetings about the DTV transition in an effort to educate some of the most vulnerable populations. But scheduling of these town hall gatherings has been ad hoc and in many cities the meetings have been poorly attended.
The distribution of set-top converter boxes has also been fraught with serious problems. Research has shown that the sort of stores that carry converter boxes are typically located far from the low-income neighborhoods which need them most. And many retailers have been caught flat-footed -- not knowing about the transition and sometimes providing incorrect information about the conversion or the coupon program.
Amid widespread confusion about the DTV conversion, there has been no shortage of unscrupulous retailers taking advantage. Both fly-by-night scam businesses and major satellite and cable TV providers have been pushing unwitting TV viewers to buy equipment they don't need at inflated prices. Worse still, earlier this year, the FCC fined several large big box retailers a combined $3.9 million for failing to correctly label analog-only TV sets that will be rendered useless come February 17.
Just last week, government officials overseeing the transition told Congress they may need an extra $330 million to keep up with the demand for converter box coupons. They also admitted that there might not be enough converter boxes available to fill anticipated needs -- and that the shortfall could be as high as 2.5 million boxes.
The saddest thing about this entire situation is that America's transition to DTV could've been handled much differently. The UK is currently in the midst of its own switch to digital television. But unlike here in the U.S., the British conversion is being rolled out gradually over the course of four years, converting region-by-region, practically neighborhood by neighborhood. What's more, the money the UK has spent on outreach and infrastructure, per capita, puts American efforts to shame. The British DTV conversion has had problems of its own, but the problems have been far smaller in scale and easier to address. Americans who watch TV and the regulators who shape our communications policies would be wise to take notice.
25 Comments so far
Show AllIt could have been done better.......I am admittedly one of those 25 million people who let the coupon expire. Got it last Summer figuring I could wait till some sale in January and found out about the expiration clause. (Maybe the idea is to have people buy new plasma/Lcd Dtv ready sets thereby infusing money into the economy.)
It will be interesting to see how many of the coupons issued will have actually been used when its all said and done.
I agree with the criticisms of Comcast and TV in general; BUT, I have learned more from C-Span and C-Span2 (Book TV) than I ever did in school.
The city of Burlington, Vermont has its own cable system for citizens. It is one of the few cable systems that airs AlJazerra.
Most of the excessive costs and problems can be traced back to the Congressional deregulation.
Every city needs a publicly owned cable system that gives C-Span at no charge to all.
One must ALWAYS ask, who benefits and who looses. What is the importance of TV in our mind fucked culture? Could this "new digital system" allow a greater level of surveillance by (our?) government via private corporations? Will this really be an asset for us, or make bigger asses of us. Good time to give it up and participate in the 3 dimensional world. The 3 dimensional world needs us badly, get your news from the radio, Amy Goodman and crew.
Unfortunately, radio is dominated mainly by rightwing hatemongers such as Limbaugh, Hannity, Boortz, etc ... and good stations such as Amy Goodman aren't as widely available as are the rightwing ones. Internet would be better.
Will the loss of viewers result in reduced advertising revenue for the TV networks ?
You betcha and if that happens, look for the cable networks to force government to scale back for some more time. But DTV or analog, it's probably not gonna matter as it will be up to us people to turn them off.
What's wrong with television has nothing to do with the image quality and everything to do with the programming.
DTV is like putting organic frosting on a genetically engineered cake.
In the US, the things that really matter are never even mentioned, much less addressed in any substantial manner. New technologies always trump everything else. Such a big deal over nothing this is, but if it has to be done, it should be done in a less frantic, less capitalistic way.
Maybe I should add that I don't watch an hour of TV in a year, and this has been so for many years—ever since the ABC sitcom "Dinosaurs" ended.
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But you can still keep your TV (LOL).
As a hardware engineer who has worked with graphics programmers, I can tell you that DTV is nothing more than another digital compression technology poop.
Derrick Jensen wrote that "TV causes mental harm" [The Culture of Make Believe]. I agree.
Jerry Mander wrote "Four Arguments against television". Ad Busters has "turn off television week". I turned off my TV primarily because of the insanity of what is polluting our minds; just an effort to further clean up the mental environment!
I used to have the TV all the time as background noise. Now I don't listen except once in a blue moon. The mental harm and distortion of the world is devastating. Now I read books, listen to music, visit with friends. It's nice.
Really listen to your TV - what do you get. Nothing. SOS. Weather, Sports, Britney, Lindsey, anchor chatter, nothing but commercials for what you don't need. How much information do you have forced on you in an hour of TV news. 20 minutes of commercials. 40 minutes of fluff. 150 words/ minute listening vs 600 words/ minute reading with a choice of what to read - no commercials.
READ. and turn off your TV.
You can make your own HDTV/UHF antennae with coat hangers. This little video I found makes it simple.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWQhlmJTMzw
Give the money I just saved you to a better cause, don't just spend it on beer.
I made the coat hanger antenna as per the instructions several months ago and it didn't work any better than my old UHF antenna. So naturally, I spent the rest of my money on beer.
I only need a tv for "My Name Is Earl" anyway. Well, that and PBS.
well boo-hoo. "most of whom are senior citizens, poor, or non-English speakers". get yourself a book and read, go to the library it's free. Go to the an ESL class, it might help you find a job.
I cut the cable two years ago. No more TV. Just movie DVDs if I feel like it. I can't even count the books I have read since.
I agree; my converter box has made my 10 year old JVC TV look like new. Now to get the DVD player attached (one thing at a time); it only cost me $24 with the coupon!
It wasn't that difficult and now I am ready! People "get" what they want; I'm not worried a bit. Americans are not children; the naysayers said the same thing about the IT turnover when 2000 rolled around - it was a non-starter. A big gasp about nothing.
The converter should be connected to the DVD input, not the TV input. You can then use the DVD normally.
---USAn---
The DTV info ads drive me crazy because they all say "if you have cable, you don't need to do anything". This is not true. The cable companies are switching from analog service to digital. It's only a matter of time before they are all done.
Comcast in my Chicago neighborhood converted last year and my analog TVs won't work without digital receivers. (Even if I had a digital TVs, I'd still need a set top boxes to receive the Comcast channels.) I was "forced" (if I wanted to watch anything that isn't local) to rent two digital receivers from Comcast at a rate of $5/month, which seems cheap until you add up the cost over time. When I asked if I could purchase receivers instead of renting them from Comcast, the Comcast rep said "No". What a scam. I probably CAN use my own receivers, but this will require time to research, and I know Comcast isn't going to help me. I'm screwed either way, losing time or losing money.
I'd just stop receiving cable altogether, I was cable-less a couple of times in the past and it was actually nice, but I live in a condo building and cable is provided to the entire building and I'm charged for it in my monthly assessment whether or not I use it.
And while I'm here, I'd like to rant about Comcast raising the basic cable rate $5/month for every owner in my building for no apparent reason. My building has 200+ units, so that's an extra $1000/month for Comcast just from my building alone. There are many other buildings in my neighborhood, so you know they're raking in big $$$. F*ckers.
I would also like to add that those people who are losing TV service might be receiving a blessing in disguise. TV is an addictive time sink. I wish I were back in one of my old houses that didn't have cable, I watched very little TV then.
DTV is nothing more than a big government scam. I'm pretty sure they'll be forced to scale back if the cable companies lose revenue big time as a result.
P, Which mail order company was that?
If you live in or near a big city, good for you. Many of us in hilly rural areas will be out of luck without an additional new directional antenna mounted atop a mast which rises above tree level.
I know. I have both the converter box and the tall mast, but not the digital directional antenna. I live 90 miles from Minneapolis/St. Paul and am unable to receive their stations. What if I lived in the vast regions of the American west where the nearest "Big City" is hundreds of miles away?
Actually I strictly watch TV off the air and I found that even a distant formerly snowy channel are now clear. In my hilly area, ghosts are now gone from the nearby channels.
The stations will still refer to themselves by their old VHF channel numbers but the The digital signals are transmittred on the UHF band, so any good UHF antenna works. Don't fall for the "digital" gimmicks.
Unfortunately, UHF is strictly line-of-sight and 90 miles puts the transmitter well over the horizon.
---USAn---
A Powered antenna can be had from the beloved Walmart for $19.95. It took my girlfriend from 5 snowy channels (with the digital converter) to about a dozen crystal clear ones in a rural area.
This is no accident.
This amounts to controlling the populaces access to current events to make informed choices about their government and their standard of living.
WIth no knowlegde that they are being babandoned or even worse, taken advantage of, theyu will have no way to redress their greivances in a democratic non-violent manner.
As well, the funds for people who do have cable, but do not want to buy a new DTV exclusive set, to get vouchers to get cable converters to let them *enjoy* television have run out.
I say again, this is no accident.
This is the tantamount evidence that the US is about to become a police state on par with Nazi Germany or Kim Jong Il's North Korea.Walk in peace.
That anybody could be unaware of the transition OR the coupon program is beyond belief. They started running the PSA spots 6 months ago, and I see a minimum of 2 or 3 a day.
I agree with you all the way. In my area, between Dayton and Cincinnati, I have been barraged with TV spots, most in prime time, telling of the change, how to get a converter box, and where to call if there is a question. Each of the channels has devoted at least an hour to special programming to inform viewers as to whether they need the box or not. They advertised that programming for weeks in advance.
When I got my coupons, I went on-line to check prices. I found that the "big box" stores were limiting the models they carried to the higher priced models. I bought from a mail order company that charged only $2 more than the coupon value. The units I got make my 18 years old television look almost as good as my 5 years old LCD widescreen.
There will always be in this world people who are never going to get the message no matter how many special delivery missives you deliver to them. And I do not think that ignorance exists only among the poor (which I once was) and the elderly (which I most definitely am).