MSTV Skeptical of Study Finding Major DTV-Coverage Issues
Association for Maximum Service Television Not in Agreement with Centris Study on Coverage Issues with Digital-TV Transition
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/11/2008 6:09:00 AM
The broadcasters' spectrum-watchdog group, the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV), was kicking the tires on a new study from Centris that suggested that there could be major coverage issues with the digital-TV transition, but MSTV wasn't ready to buy it.
The group was still vetting the information, which was reported Monday in The New York Times, but association president David Donovan said it "appeared inconsistent with our coverage analysis studies."
The study suggested that several million over-the-air DTV viewers would lose one or more channels they had gotten before, citing for one example a study of coverage problems with New York, although also talking about studies from Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The New York problem is a familiar one, and it stems from 9/11. Congress appropriated funds especially to help stations there make the DTV transition after the World Trade Center was destroyed and stations had to move to the Empire State Building until the Freedom Tower is built.
"I understand the problem in New York," Donovan said. "There has always been an issue in New York with the demise of the World Trade Center. Stations have been trying to move heaven and earth to provide a level of coverage that they had before."
But he added that when stations go to full service elsewhere in the country, "there shouldn't be problems."
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I would like to thank Centris for doing this study.
As a installer. I have been complaining about this for years but no one will listen.
The study is correct and anyone who says they are not has just not done any testing at all. I would question why they are saying its not correct and ask them to prove its not correct.
My installs in customers homes show me that the signal only goes about 30 miles and even in homes where you can get a signal futher out it drops out when it rains. Some days it has no signal at all.
If you can not get a clear snow free analog signal now you just won't get anything from that ch. on digital.
Something has to be done about this but the FCC thinks a convertor box will solve everything.
Until people start yelling that the box won't work nothing will get done.
tm - 2/20/2008 10:32:00 AM EST -
Personally I think the Centris report is optimistic. We live in Milwaukee, which should be ideal for DTV reception. When we tried using an OTA DTV receiver, the reception was miserable until we installed an outdoor antenna. The sort of interference that would result in minor ghosting on a conventional TV will shut down a digital signal. Many folks are going to be unhappy after the cutover.
D M Arnold - 2/11/2008 2:15:00 PM EST
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