RSSCopps: 'We cannot have a seamless DTV transition'
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published February 2, 2009, 3:59 PM
Facing the prospects that US broadcast stations may make the switchover to all-digital on February 17 regardless of what Congress does, the acting FCC chairman told an advisory panel last week it may be too late to undo the damage.
The state of chaos regarding the US' national switchover from analog to digital TV broadcasting may not be something a delay can remedy. This from the man currently heading the FCC while a permanent chairman -- one emerging from an administration said to be favoring a delay -- has yet to be appointed, despite the likelihood of a nominee.
"The next few weeks are going to be extremely difficult -- as difficult as any that this Commission, and millions of TV consumers, has ever faced," Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps told the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee last Friday. "That's because we never really dug deep enough to understand all the consequences that would attend the DTV transition -- not just the intended good results, but all the unintended consequences, too, the ones that usually cause the big problems. It's because we didn't have a well thought-out and coherent and coordinated plan to ease the transition -- a plan to combine the resources we needed to avoid disruption."
There was a plan, at least at one point, and it did involve public/private sector cooperation. IBM was the designated partner of the Commerce Dept.'s NTIA administration, for the distribution of government-backed coupons toward the purchase of digital signal converters. But as early as November 2007, administrators received warnings from retailers such as Best Buy that the coupon distribution was stalling.
Chairman Copps says he was among those who warned the FCC leadership and the Bush administration that a disaster was in the making, that the public/private cooperation was failing. But that was then.
"At this point, we will not have -- we cannot have -- a seamless DTV transition," the acting chairman remarked. "There is no way to do in the 26 days new leadership has had here what we should have been laser-focused on for 26 months. That time is lost, and it's lost at a cost. We cannot make it up. There is consumer disruption down the road we've been on. We need to realize this. We need to plan for it. And we need to do whatever we can to minimize it and then to repair it. This has been the focus of my one week and one day running this place."
The House of Representatives may yet be able to manage a delay in the national switchover date to June 12, following the Senate's lead. But despite a message from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D - Calif.) this morning breaking down the exact number of households believed to still be on the coupon waiting list by congressional district, no markup session for the DTV Delay bill has yet been scheduled.
Since the defeat of a measure to fast-track the bill last week, it's being forced to take the normal route any other bill would take. In this instance, that route takes it right through Rep. Waxman's committee, whose ranking Republican member, former chairman Rep. Joe Barton (R - Texas), is the bill's principal opponent. For the bill to pass, it must be debated there during a markup session, then voted on for committee recommendation.
But no such session has been scheduled; and with only 15 days to go before the regularly scheduled transition date comes to pass, there isn't all that much time.
Even if the delay passes, many stations may just go ahead and make the switch on February 17 anyway, since the delay bill would permit them to do so. Nearly all San Diego TV stations last week joined together in support of the transition, with the sole exception being the area's PBS affiliate. A spokesperson for KPBS, according to TV Technology, said it wanted the opportunity to maintain maximum visibility throughout its planned March pledge drive.
What a bunch of babys its just tv get a life that matters, turn the dam thing off like i did years ago.
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|"Radio is plenty fine for emergency, weather, and news."
What is this, 1973? Apparently you don’t listen to the medium you promote. Now that all radio stations are part of clusters run from far-distant corporate offices by accountants, you'll be getting no "emergency, weather, and news." Just ask anybody who has been through the recent winter storms anywhere. Turn on the radio and you'll get the same canned, pre-recorded, satellite-fed blather come rain or come shine. Radio is so dead even the flies have left the carcass.
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|I feel sorry for you if radio is as canned as you say it is, at least where you live. I listen to the radio daily here (Ottawa, Canada) and the coverage is more than enough to give me the basics that I need. I can't remember the last time I was forced to watch TV to get the three things mentioned in your quote.
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|TV is an unnecessary and mostly detri-"mental" luxury. We'd be better off without it. Radio is plenty fine for emergency, weather, and news. Though it suffers as well from the pollution of America's "elite" talkmen like Russ Limp-bough etc. God-help us.
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|hello...!
you will also need a digital radio
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|databaseben and dkratter -- of the I got mine, I don't give a S*** about the rest of you breed. In many cases I know of, the NTIA system would not accrpt their addresses as official and couldn't get a coupon and now can't even get on the waiting list. Have you been paying attention. There is no funding for the boxes, and if there were, people will be getting coupons months after the transition. Do you have grandparents or parents that can't even afford their meds, food and heat, who have to choose which they'll go without? Can they afford $50? I guess they don't deserve to get weather, news and emergency broadcasts. Look on eBay -- why are so many biding up to $80 for these boxes -- hundreds of these? Oh,and the expensive, special antenna systems they now need They don't live anywhere near store to buy one. Get your head out of your HighDef and 5.1 sound, and give a S*** about someone other than yourselves. Did you even read the posts previous to yours? They know what they are talking about. There are many, many reasons why some people aren't prepared -- way to many to mention here. Everyone's situation is not the same as yours. Did you even read this article you posted your comment to? There are many problems with the whole technology and implementation. look at Europe. Take the UK, they have digital (DVB-T), but it isn't mandatory -- because not everyone has access to it.
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|your argument cannot have any merit. if three years wasn't sufficient time for you and yours, then why would three more months be adequate.
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|Three years was enough time for people to convert. Stop whining.
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|oh pleaze,
coupons could have been provided that would have made the converters "FREE", yes i said "FREE"
but there are people who are of the mind set of not doing anything "UNLESS THEY HAVE TOO".
so, the stores better be fully stocked because on february 17th the herd will commence their stampede.
pity those sales clerks who open the doors and don't get out of their way.
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|The coupon really shoulda also been bigger. So one could get the box and a good antenna. Without an antenna, the box would mostly be useless. Even in the city without a box I'd maybe get a channel, but probably not.
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|Actually, if you are in a rural area getting a $40 or free converter box isn't going to do jack squat for you. Digital signals are much weaker than analog ones, and if you are in a fringe area you are going to need a new antenna, twice as big as what you had. In a city you'd be ok though.
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|THANK YOU for pointing that out. I am so tired of the outright lies about digital signal being stonger. Not only that, but to get different stations in marginal areas you have to turn your antenna different directions, like in the 80's before most stations increased their power.
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|One thing to point out. You are saying the signal is not strong enough. The main reason people are having so many issues with weak signals is because they are. Because the stations are broadcasting at full power for their analog transmissions, they are not able to bring digital up to full power until they turn off the analog power.
Two thirds down on:
http://www.digitaltvtrainer.com/KJTV/tv-antenna
"Digital channels will either have great reception (a perfect picture) or bad reception (a picture with parts that freeze, or a message that says "no signal/low signal"). (But remember: some digital stations are not running their full power until February 18, 2009.)"
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|I somewhat understand the ramification of the transition. What I don't understand is the 'armageddon' class worry that is breaking out behind the scenes of the problems that will be expected.
Is the worry in reference to the actual transition from analog to digital? Concerning the stations that are broadcasting? Or just based on consumer protection? Because the worse case scenario in ANY consumer caused problem, is having to go out and buy a $40 box....which mind you, many stores are stocked well with (since very few people need them). Even my chubby TV has a digital cable in connection. How can that really be of any real disastrous consequence? Or am I missing something.
This sort of reminds me of the Y2K outcry....and how nothing horrible happened. And especially nothing a few software updates couldn't fix...
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|Ya, but if they could have controlled the date of the Y2K conversion they would have tried to delay that too...lol.
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|This has been the focus of my one week and one day running this place.
lol...now that's funny, but says everything about how this has been handled.
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