Martin: 15% of Stations Face Smaller DTV-Coverage Areas
FCC chairman tells House Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing agency working on identifying all of those markets.
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/16/2008 8:48:00 AM
Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin told a House Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing audience Tuesday that the FCC was working on ways to help out viewers of the approximately 15% of TV stations with digital-TV signals that will not reach as many viewers as their analog signals did.
One of the lessons from the Wilmington, N.C., early analog shutoff was the number of out-of-market viewers of NBC affiliate WECT-TV there that lost the signal.
While some of those viewers were able to get a signal from an NBC affiliate in their market, some would lose access to an NBC station altogether, Martin said.
Martin told the committee that since it was the FCC's goal for viewers not to lose access to signals they had historically watched, it was working on ways to fix the problem, including perhaps an antenna to reach those areas where historic out-of-market carriage was lost due to changes in the contour of the digital signal.
Martin said that perhaps 15% of the nation's TV stations might have carriage shrink "in a significant way," similar to the changes in WECT's coverage area.
He added that the effect of that changed contour was the key lesson learned from Wilmington. He said FCC engineers were working on identifying all of those markets -- he said it would take a few weeks -- and the FCC would address remedies on a case-by-case basis, calling it the "highest priority" for the commission.
Subcommittee chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) told Martin the issue needed resolving "very soon," at least by communicating the fact to viewers who might lose their signals do to coverage-area changes.
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People living in fringe areas are going to have it tough to receive DTV. Here's our story. We're located 65 miles north of New York City, and we have two large rooftop antennas (UHF and VHF) aimed toward New York City. I hooked up my converter box as soon as I could get one earlier this year. Our reception went from 8 analog stations from New York City (7 VHF, 1 UHF) down to zero digital channels.
These antennas are 25 years old and served us well for analog reception. We couldn't replace them because the mast was rusted and wouldn't come out of the mounting bracket! During the summer months, we installed a Channel Master preamp to the mast and ran RG6 coax cable (which replaced the existing twin-lead flat wire) from the preamp to the Channel Master pass-thru power supply inside the house. We hoped it would boost the signal (without boosting too much noise).
After the upgrade, only WNYW-DT (Fox) comes in from New York City. Sometimes WWOR-DT (MyTV) is strong enough to appear but its signal does not always lock in. Although that is still an improvement over receiving no DTV stations, We still receive fewer digital stations than analog. The terrain is not favorable as signals (especially UHF) travel north up the Hudson River. Analog VHF did a much better job.
I think low power transmitters to cover the areas with gaps in signal would be a great idea. Now that winter is approaching, who is going to want to risk falling off on an icy roof to upgrade an existing antenna or install a new antenna?
If you ask me, I think the Centris study was spot on.
Tom Badura - 11/8/2008 9:14:00 AM EST -
it's not a 15% viewer loss... it's up to 15% of stations that will have contour shrinkage.
You're assuming that the viewers are spread out uniformly.
Frank - 9/18/2008 1:51:00 PM EDT -
A 15% viewer loss will devastate the broadcast industry. This is unacceptable. A system of digital "repeater" transmitters must be devised before analog is shut off. Now the industry's profit margins look to be threatened by what appears to be a precipitous end to analog. Congress must delay analog shut-off and suspend bandwidth sales until the industry can come up with economical and technically efficient repeaters to maintain the signal footprint.
How much more does the industry need to hear before it comes to its senses and supports legislation to extend the cut-off date? The industry and public are not ready, and neither are regulators. Avoid a farce and a political hot potato -- instruct industry lobbyists to push for a delay in the analog shut-off date, perhaps to Aug. 31, 2011, the Canadian deadline.
Adam Smith - 9/17/2008 1:03:00 PM EDT
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