FCC: Stations Must Warn Viewers of Signal Loss
Noncoms to get waivers to pull analog plug before April 16
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/13/2009 12:23:38 PM
According to sources, the FCC is poised today to release new rules of the road for the DTV transition that include requiring broadcasters losing at least 2% of their historic coverage area in the switch from digital to analog to warn viewers on-air.
The commission is said to need to get the rules out before 2 p.m.
The notification requirement will be either a crawl or PSA, and the loss in viewership will be calculated according to DTV reception maps the FCC has posted on its Web site .
Noncommercial broadcasters pleading hardship are also getting waivers to pull the plug on analog before April 16. Stations have until Tuesday (March 17) to elect their transition date, but it can't be before April 16 absent a waiver, which is a little less than two months before the June 12 hard date.
That makes this different from the original Feb. 17 hard date, when stations were allowed to pull the plug 90 days before the date so long as they let the FCC and viewers know.
The FCC is also resetting the countdown clock requirement from 100 days to 60 days, which should please broadcasters.
In meetings with Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein about the FCC's guidelines for compliance with the new DTV hard date of June 12, the National Association of Broadcasters' top regulatory affairs staffers had said restarting the clock so soon would "decrease its effectiveness in prompting viewer action." The FCC had responded by suspending the 100-day requirement pending a decision on that request.
The decision to require notification of signal loss was driven in part by the experience of the Feb. 17 analog cut-off, when over 400 stations elected to stick with the original plan.
According to just-released FCC figures, the greatest percentage of DTV-related calls it received on Feb. 17 were from viewers who were having reception or technical problems, which it defined as problems receiving any channels, antenna problems, or weak or intermittent signals. Those accounted for 26% of the 27,764 calls it received.
Over 600 stations have already made the transition from analog to digital, although that represents only about 13% of total viewership because most of the large markets have yet to convert.
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Will someone PLEASE go to Eric's apartment and see why his TV won't work?
Ken English - 3/14/2009 11:38:13 AM EDT -
Warn them? Why? What's different here than when WMTW-TV, Channel 8, Portland (Poland Spring) ME, abandoned its blowtorch transmitter atop Mt. Washington, reaching millions spread across NY, VT, NH and ME as well as Canada, for a new, lower HAAT tower near the Portland tower farm near Raymond, ME? They did this to cut costs way back, and cease reaching non-DMA viewers who didn't count in making national and regional sales. Same for WECT, Wilmington, ND when theyy chose to abandoned their 2,000 footer in White Lake, NC, and go with a stick much closer to Wilmington. Again, why waste money serving a few out-of-market viewers who don't pay the bills?
There's several stories like this, not to mention the huge losses suffered by KFRE-TV Fresno back several decades ago when they chifted from Channel 12 to 30.
Advise viewers? Yeah right, Congress!!! Just one more effort by our regulators to say to those disenfranchised from viewing when some DTV patterns don't match the former analog pattern, "Hey, we warned you!"
Horsepucky.
Tom Scanlan - 3/14/2009 12:42:03 AM EDT -
As a person in Chicago, (3 miles NW of Sears Towers), who went from 16 analog channels to ZERO digital channels, I am glad they are telling people they may lose all their TV or some of their channels. I am tired of TV stations saying "Just get a converter box and it'll be fine." It may be, but not everyone will get digital, just because they got analog
Eric Post - 3/13/2009 2:32:53 PM EDT
