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Thursday, February 5, 2009
Austin TV stations mulling: DTV delay or not?
The federal government’s decision Wednesday to push back the deadline for broadcast TV’s digital conversion from Feb. 17 to June 12 is wreaking havoc on local stations around the country.
In Austin, CBS affiliate KEYE announced on its Wednesday night newscast that it would adhere to the original Feb. 17 deadline and drop its analog signal at that time.
But on Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission informed local stations that they had to file a notification by midnight Monday to make the switch on Feb. 17, and that request could be denied.
Meanwhile, PBS station KLRU plans to drop its analog signal on Mar. 31, while Fox-owned KTBC and Univision’s KAKW are holding off until the new June deadline.
Final plans are still pending for NBC affiliate KXAN. ABC affiliate KVUE did not respond to several requests for information about the timing of its digital switch.
“We’re ready, and we think it’s confusing to viewers to push it to June,” said KEYE general manager Amy Villarreal, who plans to file a request with the FCC on Monday to keep the February deadline. “I’m conscious of the rest of the market and that we all need to help out viewers, but we think it’s time.”
Mark Rodman, KTBC’s general manager, said his station is “pleased that through the actions of Congress and the Obama administration, American consumers will be given additional time to prepare for the digital television transition.”
Cost as well as confusion are major factors in stations’ desire to turn off analog signals sooner rather than later.
Most broadcasters have been simulcasting analog and digital signals for months if not years. In preparation for the switch, which was mandated by the government to free up analog signals for emergency operations and commercial auctions, the stations have devoted hours and hours of promotion and outreach education efforts.
“It’s a significant amount of money,” Villarreal said. “The electric bill alone (for the analog signal) is $20,000 a month.”
PBS stations such as Austin’s KLRU, which operate on viewer contributions and government assistance, face even more dire economic constraints. PBS executives have said they could be out as much as $22 million if they have to run both analog and digital signals until June.
“We didn’t budget to go later,” said KLRU general manager Bill Stotesbery. “It costs us thousands of dollars a month to keep analog going.”
Stations nationwide are wrestling with the delay. Salt Lake City, Spokane and several TV markets in West Virginia have kept the Feb. 17 deadline, with all the stations in those cities agreeing on the same course of action.
According to the National Association of Broadcasters, 143 TV stations already have made the switch, and 60 more likely will follow suit by Feb. 17. More than 200 additional stations have notified the FCC that they want to shut off their analog signals on the original date.
The delay was intended to give consumers more time and resources to prepare for the switch. When analog signals are cut off, viewers with older analog TV sets that receive programming over-the-air with an antenna will need to buy a converter box, get a new digital TV or hook up to a pay service such as cable or satellite.
An alarm sounded among some consumer groups and politicians when the federally funded program to distribute the $40 coupons for converter boxes ran out of money. Since then, more than 3.3 million consumers have been placed on a waiting list for the coupons. Without coupons, converter boxes cost $40 to $75.
Nielsen Media Research estimates that more than 6 million U.S. households are unprepared for DTV.
A recent survey by the Texas Association of Broadcasters found that about 6,000 households, or 1 percent of the 667,670 TV households in the Austin viewing area are unprepared for DTV, with an additional 6,000 households waiting for coupons.
In November about 11 percent of Austin homes were unprepared, so considerable progress has been made.
FCC advisors and broadcasters agree that the best advice for consumers caught up in the confusion is to prepare now.
If you have cable or satellite service, you don’t need to do anything. If you receive programming on an older TV set with an antenna, you need a converter box, a new digital TV or a hookup to pay service. If you can’t afford a converter box, apply for a $40 coupon now and use it before it expires in 90 days.
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