Centris Defends Its Study on Potential DTV-Reception Issues
Association for Maximum Service Television Said Study Was Flawed
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/17/2008 8:41:00 AM
Market-research company Centris Thursday defended its recent study that suggested that there could be upward of 9 million households with digital-TV-reception problems after the transition to digital.
In response, the Association for Maximum Service Television said the study was flawed, adding, “Consumers should not be misled by 'proprietary analysis' asserting that they must purchase antennas that are more expensive or shift to pay cable, satellite or telecom video services."
Centris countered in a statement Thursday that it stuck by its findings that 9.2 million households could have reception issues, adding that the number was probably even conservative.
"Centris has no vested interest in any one constituency or any particular piece of technology," the company said, "and has not recommended that consumers purchase any additional equipment or technology unless it is needed." Centris did advocate that consumers be "forewarned" about the potential for reception problems and the possible need to upgrade antennas.
"If consumers are not educated about such problems, they may incorrectly conclude that reception problems are due to flaws in converter boxes and might then proceed to return their converter boxes to retailers," the company said. "That would be an unfortunate consequence and one that may be preventable."
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Reception has always been the biggest concern of engineers as the viewing public begins reliance on digital television service rather than analog. The cliff effect has been discussed and is pretty easy to comprehend but the loss of immediate feedback between the quality of the signal and the picture displayed in digital is less obvious. This is especially critical for viewers using indoor antennas. The IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and Iowa Public Television produced a program call "Receiving DTV" that addressed many of these issues and made it freely available to all stations nationwide for use in their consumer education campaigns. The program is still available online at www.iptv.org/video/detail.cfm/3328/dqa_20090131_receiving_digital_television.
We would also be willing to uplink it again if there is enough interest.
Bill Hayes - 4/8/2009 11:37:24 AM EDT -
Interference and propagation issues already are vexing set-top box users, along with antenna issues. For these set-top boxes to pick up reliable signals from all local stations, a rooftop antenna or an amplified indoor antenna is the way to go. The DTV campaign does not address interference, and Centris is right -- people will blame the boxes. Nor does the campaign tackle antennas, except on the web site, which many elderly viewers can\'\'t or won\'\'t access. So the FCC must police the airwaves and impose significant fines on malicious jamming... if only to dissuade unethical actors from embarking on an illict campaign to erode public confidence in over the air DTV. If propagation and inferference issues are licked, DTV could mean a renaissance for over-the-air TV. We could even see a comeback in the roof-top antenna biz and more cable churn. Cable MSOS probably would prefer that the industry not \"broadcast\" this option. But some brave broadcaster could dare to buck the trend and offer an all-newser as a subchannel. The ad revenue stream that could result from deeper market penetration via DTV might actually prove to be a bigger source of revenues than cable MSO per-sub fees. For public TV, a high-quality 24-hour newser on par with the BBC would help bridge the digital divide for economically strapped families... no better rationale for its existence.
