(Posted 10/02/2008)

(Posted 10/02/2008)  An article for "55 Plus," explaining the DTV changes ahead.

(Posted 7/2/2008)  A new white paper from the folks at TeamSoper.

(Posted 7/2/2008) -  A new white paper from Team Soper.

(Posted 5/30/2008) Idea: After 02/17/20008, at least one TV station in each market should stay on the air in analog to broadcast a slide or a looping video that tries to explain to left-behind viewers what happened to the analog signals.

(Posted May 15, 2008) In a letter to FCC chairman Kevin Martin , they argued that manufacturers are knowingly selling products that will soon be obsolete because they do not contain automatic software-upgrade capability (think of computers and online-delivered patches and software upgrades).

(Posted 5/08/2008) 
The DTV transition is no big deal, LIN Television CEO Vince Sadusky told securities analysts this morning.

“I strongly believe that from a viewership perspective this is largely going to be a Y2K event,” he said during the conference call.

Ninety percent of homes receive their broadcast signals via cable or satellite and so will be “In the worst case scenario, you will have a few…grandmothers out there who will wake up and not have their TVs working…[but] they’ll have a resolution within a few days,” he said.

(Posted April 11, 2008)  Op-ed piece from TV Newsday's editor and publisher Harry Jessell.
Broadcasters still aren't making the most of their opportunities to promote themselves as the country's best post-analog television option.

(Posted 3/20/2008) NBCU's VP of technology standards, policy and strategy talks about what's left to do as the digital TV conversion approaches, including dealing with aspect ratios on analog sets, loudness, white-space devices and proposed legislation to exempt stations near the Mexican border from the analog shutoff deadline.

(Posted 03/06/2008)  From PBS.

(Posted 3/6/2008)   From TEAMSoper.

(November 16, 2007) While February 17, 2009, the shut-off date for analog broadcasting will come and go without notice to many viewers; public television stations still face a significant risk.

Over-the-air viewers may be disproportionately loyal, long-term public television members.  These members may well be older and feel less comfortable with change or the need to purchase and install decoders and / or a new television set.  And they are at great risk of being left behind.

Here's TeamSoper's strategy for you and your station to "Leave No Viewer Behind."

(10/31/07) - WGBH President and CEO Jonathan Abbott today urged Congress to invest in a grassroots campaign to ensure that no American is left behind as the nation completes the digital conversion. Abbott said: “The key policy goal of this transition must be the preservation of free, over-the-air television, both commercial and public. It is essential to the health of this nation’s media marketplace, and our democracy.”

(10/15/07) The Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet will hold a hearing on Wednesday, October 17, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled “Status of the DTVTransition—Part 2.”

The committee will question witnesses on the status of the rapidly approaching digital television transition, as well as the consumer education program and plans for an auction to sell the spectrum vacated by analog television post-transition. After Feb. 17, 2009, analog televisions not connected to a converter box, cable or satellite will go dark because they will be unable to receive digital signals.

(10/15/07) The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) and PBS announced the next phase of Public Television’s campaign to educate viewers about the fast-approaching mandatory DTV transition. Public Television’s efforts will focus on the hard-to-reach households that receive television only through over-the-air signals.

(10/15/07) Television broadcasters plan to invest the equivalent of $697 million to educate the American public on the upcoming switch to digital TV transmission.

The National Association of Broadcasters detailed what it described as a “multi-platform, multifaceted campaign”at a press conference in Washington October 15, 2007.

The FCC today announced the agenda topics and tentative speakers for the Digital Television Consumer Education Workshop to be held Wednesday, Sept. 26, at FCC Headquarters, 445 12thSt., SW,Washington, DC, in the Commission Meeting Room. It is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. and end at 3:45 p.m.

The FCC said the purpose of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for all interested parties to “jointly discuss the challenges associated with the upcoming transition and explore ways to develop coordinated consumer education activities.”

Organizations representing a broad range of consumers and other stakeholders will be represented, including those who represent senior citizens, low-income consumers, non-English speakers, people with disabilities, tribes, and public interest organizations working on behalf of underserved customers or those living in rural areas.

During the workshop, the public can e-mail questions for the panelists at dtvworkshop@fcc.gov.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration DTV converter box coupon program is officially set for a Jan. 1 launch, but consumers will not receive the vouchers until the retailers have the devices in stores. The best estimate for when the converters will be available from retailers is "early 2008," according to Marc Pearl, executive director of the Consumer Electronics Retailers Association.

Today, digital broadcasting, using 1s and 0s, is widespread, running alongside regular analog TV service. Analog service ends in February 2009, freeing spectrum for use by public safety agencies and wireless communications, among other uses. This could affect your ability to watch TV.

Preparing for the transition

Broadcasters will bear the brunt of the transition, but individuals also could be adversely affected. When the change comes, your TV must be capable of receiving digital signals. Otherwise, you won't be able to watch TV.

If you have cable or satellite, you don't need to worry. Those companies will provide any necessary equipment. Telephone companies' fiber-optic service should also continue to work.

By Ira Teinowitz
The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications Information Administration has tapped IBM to help manage the government coupon program aimed at helping consumers pay for the converter boxes they may need to watch digital TV on analog sets.

In a move crucial to the nation's digital TV transition, NTIA today awarded IBM a contract worth up to $120 million. IBM will design a Web site, phone center and fulfillment procedures to track the issuing and redemption of the $40 coupons the government is offering to households without cable.

"This is a major milestone toward implementing a successful coupon program to ensure the switch from analog to digital television is completed smoothly and as planned," said NTIA Administrator John Kneuer. "By awarding the contract on schedule, NTIA is preparing to be open for business so consumers may request coupons starting Jan. 1, 2008, as required by law."
The United States switches TV broadcasting from analog to digital on Feb. 17, 2009. On that day, millions of analog sets not connected to a cable or satellite box will go dark unless they are connected to a converter box.

Those boxes are expected to cost up to $70 each. The government has set aside up to $1.5 billion to provide $40 discount coupons to households that could lose service.

There has been increasing concern among congressional Democrats that the coupon program won't be in place in time and that the $1.5 billion isn't enough to aid all the households needing help.�

Democrats have talked of delaying the transition date if too many consumers will lose signals.
In announcing the contract today, NTIA said IBM will start work immediately. As of Jan. 1, consumers may apply for the coupons by calling 888-DTV-2009 or going to the Web site, www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon.

IBM's contract calls for consumer education, coupon distribution to consumers and retail stores and financial processing to reimburse retailers and track redemptions.

An NTIA spokesman said IBM also will help develop a plan for spending $5 million on consumer education in a way that provides the greatest outreach to the most affected communities: the poor, the elderly, the disabled, minorities and rural residents.

The National Association of Broadcasters praised the awarding of the contract.
"This is an important step in a process that will bring digital television to all Americans," said Jonathan Collegio, VP of the NAB's digital television transition unit. "The success of the converter box coupon program is critical to upgrading America to digital television ... to ensure all Americans continue to have access to free, over-the-air television."

That was the message at a breakfast panel discussion, "The Digital Transition and How It Affects the Consumer," at The Independent Show here Wednesday, the last day of the joint conference of the National Cable Television Cooperative and the American Cable Association.

"While our role is not defined and we seem unwilling or unable to define it for ourselves, there are forces at work that are trying to define our role for us," said panelist Bob Gessner, president of Massillon Cable TV in Ohio and NCTC chairman.

"If we don't define our role, someone else is going to define it for us, and it will be to our detriment rather than our benefit," he added, referring to the Federal Communications Commission and the National Association of Broadcasters.

Small and midsized cable operators, such as Massillon, appeared to agree that they can benefit and gain some leverage via their ability to deliver the digital signals of broadcast stations to analog-TV sets come Feb. 17, 2009.

"I can't get a smell of their digital signal," he said at The Independent Show, an annual convocation of hundreds of small and midsized cable operators.

That is an effect that has come to be called the "digital cliff." Yes, broadcasters may be sending out their signals as digits, like the Federal Communications Commission mandates for Feb. 17, 2009, and thereafter.

By Feb. 18, 2009, the signals the sets receive will be shut off. Those old analog channels, which have been used for 60 years, will be reclaimed by the government and auctioned for billions of dollars to other communications services. The nation's broadcasters will transmit only digital signals.

Info (finally) on the converter box and the award

of a contract from the Dept of Commerce (NTIA) to IBM to build them and

work with the coupon program.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) said he had gotten the message from concerned seniors and minority groups. "I assure you Congress has heard your message, and we will do something about it." He did not elaborate.

During the hearing, the senator heard from an FCC staffer and John Kneuer, head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, which is charged with administering the $1.5 billion program to distribute digital-to-analog converter boxes to keep analog-only sets running after the February 17, 2009 date for the digital switch.

The timing was no accident: Local stations were using the marquee football game in an attempt to gain bargaining leverage to wring cash out of their regional multiple-system operators.

In Albuquerque, N.M., Comcast customers were unable to receive HD signals from the CBS affiliate there, LIN TV's KRQE, during the game.

And guess who got the blame? "Comcast doesn't offer CBS HD," wrote Albuquerque Tribune sportswriter Phil Parker on his blog during the game, "and for that the decision makers deserve to die a slow death."

Parker described his friend's purchase of an over-the-air antenna from Best Buy so they could catch Super Bowl XL in vivid, high-definition detail: "He subscribes to Comcast and sends them money every month. Why should he have to spend extra cash to watch the biggest sporting event in the world in HD?

CLEVELAND -- Buying an antenna for a high-definition television seems as out of place as using a rotary phone to make a call. But some consumers are spending thousands of dollars on LCD or plasma TVs and hooking them up to $50 antennas that don't look much different from what grandpa had on top of his black-and-white picture tube.

The leaders of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the National Association of Broadcasters and the Consumer Electronics Association are set to unveil a public-relations offensive next week designed to educate consumers about the demise of over-the-air analog TV in early 2009.

The three trade groups, while often in conflict, decided to unite in response to calls from key congressional leaders that their industries had the scale and resources to inform 300 million U.S. citizens that millions of TV sets could go dark Feb. 17, 2009, as a result of a federal law signed by President Bush last February.

As Americans upgrade to high-definition television, they're being barraged by celebrity pitches for competing TV services -- and dueling statistics.

Most viewers will never compare cable with satellite in their own homes. But they're asked to make the comparison in their heads, with the help of some loaded claims.

DirecTV has been the big player in this numbers game. In a current ad, Pamela Anderson, in "Baywatch"-era lifeguard garb, chastens viewers as a swimmer calls for help: "I'm putting my life on the line and you're watching me on cable instead of DirecTV?" Ms. Anderson explains: "DirecTV's picture quality beats cable, four-to-one."

How one picture quality beat another, or exactly what the four-to-one ratio represents, Ms. Anderson doesn't say; she launches into her trademark beach run.