11 Florida Stations Plan Joint Digital Test

Eleven TV stations in central Florida have banded together to run a test designed to flush out viewers who are not technologically prepared for the congressionally mandated nationwide switch to digital television on Feb. 17. The unprecedented three-stage test, announced Thursday in Orlando, will consist of brief blackouts of the stations’ over-the-air analog signals. Cable and satellite customers in the market will see no disruption, because they already are receiving the stations’ digital signal from their providers. Broadcast-only viewers, however, will see a blackout of several seconds and then a graphic telling them where to find information about what corrective measures they need to take in order to be able to see TV programming uninterrupted when the analog signal goes away for real and for good in February. Unlike in Wilmington, N.C., where the local stations’ analog signals will end for good on Sept. 8 in an FCC-approved test of what other markets might face in February, the Orlando stations will resume analog broadcasting at the end of each test. The Orlando tests, which will be heavily promoted and explained on-air by all of the stations, will last one minute only. The first will take place at 7:59 p.m. June 25.
http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/05/11_florida_stations_plan_joint.php
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