Senate Nears Deal to Delay DTV Move

[Force Commander]

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2009/01/23/daily.3/

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate appeared close to agreement late Thursday on a bill to delay next month's planned transition from analog to digital television broadcasting to June 12 — setting the stage for a vote early next week.

Senate Republicans last week blocked Democratic efforts to push back the Feb. 17 deadline for the analog shutoff. The Democrats cited mounting concerns that too many Americans who rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals won't be ready.

The Nielsen Co. said Thursday that more than 6.5 million U.S. households are still not prepared for the upcoming transition and could see their TV sets go dark next month.

"The shameful truth is that we are not poised to do this transition right," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller, D-W.V., author of the bill to delay the switchover. "We are only weeks away from doing it dreadfully wrong — and leaving consumers with the consequences."

Republicans in both the House and Senate have raised concerns that a delay would confuse consumers, create added costs for television stations that would have to continue broadcasting both analog and digital signals and burden wireless companies and public safety agencies waiting for spectrum that will be freed up by the switch.

But Rockefeller said late Thursday that he had reached a bipartisan compromise and won the crucial support of the committee's top Republican, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas.

Rockefeller's bill aims to address Republican concerns by allowing broadcast stations to make the switch from analog to digital signals sooner than the June 12 deadline if they choose to — a provision consistent with the current law mandating a Feb. 17 transition. It would also permit public safety agencies to take over vacant spectrum that has been promised to them as soon as it becomes available.

In 2005, Congress required broadcasters to switch from analog to digital signals, which are more efficient, to free up valuable chunks of wireless spectrum to be used for commercial wireless services and interoperable emergency-response networks.

But President Barack Obama earlier this month called for the transition date to be postponed after the Commerce Department hit a $1.34 billion funding limit for coupons to subsidize digital TV converter boxes for consumers. The boxes, which generally cost between $40 and $80 each and can be purchased without a coupon, translate digital signals back into analog ones for older TVs.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department administering the program, is now sending out new coupons only as older, unredeemed ones reach a 90-day expiration date and free up more money for the program. The NTIA had nearly 2.6 million coupon requests on a waiting list as of Wednesday.

If Rockefeller's bill passes the Senate next week, the matter goes next to the House. With the clock ticking down on Feb. 17, the quickest course of action for Congress would be for the House to simply pass the Senate bill.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., postponed a committee vote on his own proposal to delay the digital transition earlier this week, saying he wanted to wait and see how the debate plays out in the Senate.

[AmpedNow]

...and the same damn thing's gonna happen on June 12... People will forget about the changeover and go about their business.

They will be "caught off guard" once again, and start whining to their politicians.

Don't forget that this should've originally been done two years ago -- in February 2007... And this DTV ball started rolling in December 1996.

How long does it take?

[engineer]

CNN is reporting Obama may issue an executive order that will extend the deadline until this coming fall.

[genlock]

All the stations should turn the ntsc box off on schedule and say to the FCC, "go to hell".

[Tom Taggart]

Amen. Power in numbers. Haven't heard that there are all these TV viewers in Hawaii "in the dark" because of the digital switch-over there. (Hawaii TV stations already switched since their towers were near a nesting area for rare birds--the birds don't start to nest until mid February.)

[The-Hammer]

This may have already been posted elsewhere, but Rob Johnson said this morning that WSAZ will be switching in February regardless.

[The Interpreter]

Yep, and their website says:

...WSAZ Television in the Charleston-Huntington Television market intends to permanently cease analog television service on February 17th, 2009. The pending legislation in the United States Congress will not affect the WSAZ change to digital televsion broadcasting. If you watch WSAZ Television on an analog TV with rabbit ears or a rooftop antenna, you can continue to receive the station by using a digital-to-analog converter box, subscribing to cable or satellite service, or buying a TV with a digital tuner.

[Ace Purple]

Hawaii TV stations already switched since their towers were near a nesting area for rare birds--the birds don't start to nest until mid February.

It's interesting how KGMB (the Honolulu CBS affiliate) has retained its "9" branding despite having turned off the Channel 9 analog signal and the station now broadcasting exclusively on digital Channel 22.

kgmb9.com

[Hoosier Daddy]

You know, I had a thought some time ago ...
With the digital conversion, have all the TV stations change over to a translator-style callsign.
WSAZ-TV would become W23xx.
WCHS-TV would get W41xx.
WOAY would use W50xx, et al.
A unique callsign to identify a digital TV station -- with the channel number "built in" to the callsign!
I realize there would be major re-branding work.
But you're going to do that anyway when you switch to digital.
The translator-style callsign uses the actual TV channel number as the 2nd and 3rd digits in the call.
The "xx" could be any two letters chosen by the station.
The public "learns" the digital channel every time they see or hear the new calls.
It was just an idea.
I never liked the whole suffix thing, with -FM, -TV, -CA, -LP, -DT, etc.
It bothers me that stations continue to refer to their defunct analog channel.
It seems deceptive and, well, pointless.

[Ace Purple]

It bothers me that stations continue to refer to their defunct analog channel.
It seems deceptive and, well, pointless.

I agree, though I understand why for two reasons (that I believe have been mentioned on here before):

1. Years and years of branding has gone into most TV stations with their analog number.
2. Many stations are already identified on their cable systems with their analog number and will likely remain there.

I'm not sure about satellite -- DirecTV uses the analog numbers for the Nashville stations even with the HD signals, though that might change once the DTV deadline arrives.

[Mr. Jones]

Bray was planning on turning off analog on the 17th anyway:

Even if the idea were to make resurgence, all stations in the West Virginia Media Holdings family would still make the switch in Feb 17.

[Dave Loudin]

It bothers me that stations continue to refer to their defunct analog channel.
It seems deceptive and, well, pointless.

I agree, though I understand why for two reasons (that I believe have been mentioned on here before):

1. Years and years of branding has gone into most TV stations with their analog number.
2. Many stations are already identified on their cable systems with their analog number and will likely remain there.

I'm not sure about satellite -- DirecTV uses the analog numbers for the Nashville stations even with the HD signals, though that might change once the DTV deadline arrives.

Labelling DTVs with the analog channels is in the FCC regs.

[Ace Purple]

Labelling DTVs with the analog channels is in the FCC regs.

Interesting -- what are the specific regulations on that?

[Big Media]

Each broadcaster was offered a choice between being identified by the old or new channel number. That decision was due in 2006, I believe. Once you decide, you must stick to it. Most everyone chose to be id'ed by their analog channel number.

SEE CORRECTION BELOW!

[Hoosier Daddy]

It's like advertising a phone number you no longer use or have.
Makes no sense at all.

[Dave Loudin]

Cable subscribers have been watching channel umpty-scratch on some other number for years.

[Ace Purple]

Each broadcaster was offered a choice between being identified by the old or new channel number. That decision was due in 2006, I believe. Once you decide, you must stick to it. Most everyone chose to be id'ed by their analog channel number.

Very interesting -- thanks for the info on that. I didn't realize that there was any set rule regarding the identification of channel number.

Think of how that would be in radio where there are stations at .7 and .9 that round up, particularly big stick signals with heritage names (like Tampa's 98 Rock being on 97.9).

[Big Media]

I apologize. I may have been misinformed. The choice was given to broadcasters to choose their post-transition DTV channel.... not how they are to be identified (channel number). In a nut shell, FCC Form 382 was initially filed by 2/10/05 for the first round of channel elections. Here a broadcaster could choose if they wanted to stay on their assigned DTV channel, revert back to their old analog channel, or be assigned a new channel. After the first round, the FCC was to study propagation patterns and look for interference potential and then do a second and third round if necessary.

Many stations are currently analog only and will "flash cut," or turn off the NTSC transmitter and immediately go on air with their new ATSC transmitter. Other stations are operating both NTSC and ATSC transmitters and will change frequencies to their current NTSC frequency (or channel number) as soon as analog ends. Still more stations will operate both transmitters, simply turn off the NTSC on the shutoff date, and then operate forever on their new DTV channel.

As far as channel identification, it is purely at the discretion of the operator if they want to continue to program their PSIP generator to identify in program grids and channel lineups as their old analog channel number or at some point begin identifying as their new channel number. Again, I believe this is a product of the PSIP generator, not an official FCC declaration.

Sorry for the confusion... though I doubt this post cleared anything up.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Actually, it did. Thanks!

[Dave Loudin]

73.682 calls out the standards to use for DTV. Included by reference is ATSC standard A/65C that describes how the PSIP works. In appendix B (labelled normative), using the NTSC channel number as the major channel number is called out. See atsc.org for more.