Surprise Interest in Over-The-Air TV
By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/4/2007 2:45:00 AM
One of broadcasters’ frequent complaints about the digital television transition is that consumers don’t realize they can receive crystal-clear high-definition pictures for free, by using an over-the-air antenna, without having to sign up for high-definition cable or satellite service. And they may be correct in thinking that consumers would be very interested in that capability, if they only knew about it.
After an Associated Press story ran on April 29 that described how simple antennas might deliver better HDTV pictures than cable or satellite service, due to the level of compression that some operators use for HDTV signals, a flurry of traffic hit , a Website run by the Consumer Electronics Association that provides information on over-the-air antennas. The CEA site had 86,000 inquiries about DTV antennas that day, a huge jump from the normal Sunday traffic of 6,000 inquiries, according to CEA spokesman Jason Oxman; the site usually averages 100,000 inquiries per month (an inquiry is more than a hit, says Oxman, as it requires filling out a form to get detailed recommendations on antenna choices based on a viewer’s geographic location).
The spike in traffic for actually overwhelmed the site and caused it to start giving out error messages, such as the one a B&C reporter experienced when checking it on Tuesday. Oxman says that based on the increased interest, CEA was working with the vendor who hosts the site to increase its capacity.
"It’s a data-intensive site, so it requires a lot of bandwidth resources," says Oxman.
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As owner of www.dennysantennaservice.com We have seen antenna sales increase by 300% in 2006, mainly do to the introduction of digital HDTV. Many of our customer's are even turning off their cable/satellite. Choosing the proper TV antenna for a particular location is the main issue. People have a tendency to purchase an antenna that's too small to do the job, digital reception is all or nothing. Also, their is a misconception that all digital-HDTV broadcasts are using the UHF (14-69) band to broadcast their signal. Currently most are because the VHF band (2-13) is full and is being used to broadcast analog signals. However, in February of 2009 the date set to turn off all analog signals things will change. There are only a handful of broadcast markets across the U.S. that will be 100% UHF. This means if you purchase a UHF TV antenna now, chances are you will loose the ability to receive a portion of your digital channels after that date. My best advice is to purchase an antenna that is large enough to be certain it can easily receive all of the digital broadcasts even under poor reception conditions and one that is VHF and UHF capable, unless you are absolutely certain all of your stations are now and will be UHF after the digital transition is complete. You can determine what channels your station are currently broadcasting on and what channels they plan to be on after the deadline by visiting, hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
Denny Duplessis - 5/5/2007 6:49:00 AM EDT -
did they read about these antennae is a newspaper?
see it on a tv?
nope, read about it on 'THAT FAD'... the internet.
besides, IF they saw it on a ota tv, could they have taken their remote control and surfed right over to find out more info? nope again.
there's nothing wrong with good old tv... it's good. AND it's OLD.
!nvitedmedia - 5/4/2007 8:04:00 AM EDT
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