Posted on May 28, 2008 by David Oxenford

What Will the FCC Learn from Wilmington - The Beginning of the End of the TV Digital Transition

With the Digital Television conversion date only eight and a half months away, the end game is beginning.  The FCC has announced that Wilmington, North Carolina will be a test market for the digital conversion, going all-digital on September 8 (or almost all digital, as the local NPR affiliate is not planning to turn off its analog signal, and one LPTV station will continue to operate in analog).  This will provide the FCC with an opportunity to determine what will really happen when the digital transition occurs in February of next year.  What will the FCC learn from this early test?  In the statement of Commissioner Copps at a recent town hall meeting held in Wilmington to address the digital conversion, some of the issues to be watched were set out.

Essentially, the Commissioner identified four different broad categories of issues that would be considered.  They are:

  • Technical issues - will the DTV signals provide adequate service to their communities?  Will the converter boxes be able to receive the signals with "rabbit ear" antennas, or will there be reception problems
  • Will consumers have received the word about the transition, or are there certain groups that will be particularly hard-hit by the transition, missing out on vital information about that transition?
  • How will various partnerships work?  The Commissioner identifies partnerships between various industry, government and community groups to distribute news about the transition, but there are also partnerships between stations and multi-channel video providers (cable and direct broadcast satellite) that need to be worked out
  • The unknown - what other issues that are not anticipated will arise?

As set forth below, many of these issues have been receiving extensive press coverage in recent weeks.

Last week, a Washington Post article addressed some of the practical problems with the digital conversion, identifying many of the problems that others have identified before, such as the fact that the digital signals are subject to breaking up when received on rabbit ears when there are people walking around a room, or airplanes or trucks passing near the house.  A similar article ran last month in the New York Times.  I have personally experienced the issue, having bought a digital converter box last weekend to hook up to an analog TV set.  Even though, from the second story of my house I can see some of the TV towers when there are no leaves on the trees, a TV on the first floor, which picked up digital signals clearly when there was no movement, would break up into pixels when there were people moving in the room.  A second floor TV with a better antenna had fewer issues.  But these problems will no doubt be faced by consumers as the transition occurs, and stations need to be prepared to address them with their viewers.  The Wilmington test will provide ideas on how bad the problems will be, and how great a consumer outcry will occur.

Last week, the New York Times also reported on a recent study that addressed the number of homes that were unprepared for the transition.  The report stated that 25 million homes have sets that won't work after the digital transition, and 10 million are completely unprepared for that transition.  While the Times report seemed to regard these figures as ominous, as television stations are only now beginning to really alert consumers about the transition, these figures may not be of as much concern as the article seems to imply.

Efforts are now being made by organizations across the country to educate the public about the transition.  Not only have the FCC rules requiring consumer education efforts by broadcasters, cable companies, and consumer electronics stores, about which we wrote here, been adopted, but voluntary efforts are underway around the country.  The NAB, the FCC, the consumer electronics companies, all sorts of community organizations and broadcasters themselves are conducting educational efforts all around the nation.  The FCC itself is conducting a seminar on converter box issues on June 19, and hosting another on May 28 sponsored by the NAB and DC's Congressional representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton.  Similar seminars are being conducted across the country.

Partnerships between broadcasters and multichannel video providers, to ensure that all are ready to "flip the switch" at the same time are also necessary.  And, as we wrote here, there is also a need for broadcasters to coordinate with each other to make sure that conversions which are contingent on each other are coordinated.  Industry organizations are working with stations to ensure that they work out these issues.

So, while there is much to do before the transition, the Wilmington experiment should help to clarify many of the issues that are to be resolved.  It will be interesting to see what is learned in Wilmington.  Whether it will be interesting to be in Wilmington when the conversion occurs remains to be seen.
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Posted on January 1, 2008 by David Oxenford

FCC Releases Order Addressing the Process for the Final Transition to Digital Television

On the last day of 2007, the FCC released a 108 page order detailing its rules for the final stages of the transition of US full power television stations from analog to digital, a transition that is to be completed in less than 14 months.  The Third Periodic Review, as the order is titled, covers in detail the timing of required construction of the final facilities for each full power television station, as well as various details on other transition issues.  While we will prepare a more detailed summary of the order, some of the more significant issues that the Commission addressed include the following:

  • Established firm construction deadlines for final digital facilities for television stations which have not yet constructed those facilities. The deadlines are:
    • February 17, 2009 for stations moving to a new digital channel, or to their analog channel, for their ultimate digital operations
    • May 18, 2008 for stations that will remain on their current digital channel and which already hold a construction permit for their digital operations
    • August 18, 2008 for stations that will remain on their current digital channel but which do not have a construction permit for their ultimate facilities
  • Extensions of these deadlines will be permitted only upon a showing that the circumstances preventing construction were unexpected or beyond the control of the licensee, including zoning and financial inability - though these standards were made more limited than those that previously applied.  Any extension beyond February 17, 2009 will be granted only if it meets the Commission's tolling standards, e.g. there is litigation which must be resolved before the construction can begin or an Act of God that temporarily precludes construction.
  • By February 18, 2008, each television station licensee must file a new form with the FCC, Form 387, detailing the status of construction of the digital facilities of the station, and must update the information periodically if they have not yet completed their DTV construction.
  • The Commission has agreed to allow stations to receive Special Temporary Authority to operate with limited facilities, and to even cease analog broadcasting before the end of the transition or for periods of up to 30 days, if necessary to facilitate their ultimate construction, under certain specific guidelines and after prior notification that must be given to viewers. 
  • The current freeze on applications for increased facilities will be lifted after August 18, 2008
  • The Commission adopted new interference standards for applications for improvement in digital stations
  • Any digital station, whether operating as a licensee or permittee, must pay fees for any ancillary or supplementary services that they provide with their digital spectrum
  • Provided a format for the station identification that must be used when a digital station uses a secondary channel to rebroadcast another station, such as a low power television station.

 

One interesting comment on the transition came from Commissioner Copps, who was critical of the fact that the process for the final conversion is only now being established, with just over a year to go before the February 17, 2009 date by which analog television will come to an end.  The Commissioner suggested that the FCC pick a test market, and attempt an early digital transition there, much as is being done in other countries.  For instance, in Germany, the digital transition in Berlin took place early so that the process could be reviewed to ease the process in other markets.  While Copps suggests that the Commission could still do such a test market transition in the United States, one wonders how a market could be selected and sufficient public notice provided for a test transition to occur early enough to be a learning experience applicable to the remainder of the country.

Watch for more details on this Order, and other digital transition issues to be addressed by the FCC (including the prospect of mandatory publicity efforts for television operators), as the DTV transition progresses.
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