High Hurdles in Digital-TV Race

Consumer-electronics manufacturers, broadcasters and legislators descended on Washington last week for the Consumer Electronics Association's Entertainment Technology Policy Summit. Attendees spoke of the obstacles they must overcome before analog TV gets turned off. FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said most Americans don't realize that analog TV signals will cease in 2009. He called for a national campaign to educate consumers about the turnoff and their options for receiving DTV service, which include purchasing subsidized set-top boxes that will receive digital signals and convert them to analog for viewing on older sets. He added that one of the major problems facing the transition is that "consumers are buying up analog TVs at bargain-basement prices" and creating a bigger universe of potentially obsolete sets, despite set-makers' efforts to gradually integrate DTV tuners into their products per federal mandate. He would like to see the FCC work with the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, which is overseeing the digital-to-analog converter-box program, to create a "federal DTV task force" to improve consumer awareness. He also called for more help from consumer-electronics companies, the entertainment community and broadcasters. Even if “late adopters” get the message about the turnoff and apply for their $40 subsidy for a converter box, there are concerns about the boxes themselves. People who buy the boxes may need to replace their "rabbit-ear" antennas with specialized indoor antennas or even install a rooftop antenna. Several summit attendees indicated a lack of confidence in policy-makers. Brandon Burgess, CEO of Ion Media Networks (formerly Paxson), says the government is at fault for failing to enact rules on pressing issues like converter-box requirements, digital must-carry and the broadcast flag. “Putting off rules is a way to delay the hard date,” he says. "If it becomes apparent around election time in 2008 that this thing isn't working, you are going to see a delay in the hard date." Most agree there's a load of work to do before the hard date arrives. Rick Chessen, former associate chief of the FCC media bureau and now a lawyer with Washington firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton, notes that 200 stations are not yet offering a digital signal, 50% of DTV stations are still operating at low power, and some 500 stations will be moving their DTV channel assignments as part of the transition. He says, "There is a very complicated dance that needs to happen over the next two years."
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