Delays in Digital TV
Most stations miss deadline for broadcasting
All sides have known for months that the digital TV transition won't actually be realized for years to come. And when it comes to American viewers, well, digital and analog amount to gobbledygook.
There are roughly 1,309 commercial TV stations across the country. As of Tuesday, only about 265 commercial TV stations were offering a digital signal. The vast majority of those are in large markets, including L.A.
Gotham's major stations were good to go until Sept. 11, when the collapse of the World Trade Centers brought down digital antennas.
The plotline for the fabled digital TV transition sounded all well and good when Capitol Hill handed broadcasters, at no charge, a digital spectrum worth billions upon billions. In return, the TV biz promised a glorious new era of hi-def television.
What Washington pols and regulators failed to realize was that without consumer demand, the plan was useless. Not to mention the infighting between broadcasters and cablers, or the reluctance of content providers to turn over quality programming until a way is found to stop Napster-like piracy.
Today's deadline, set by Congress, didn't require broadcasters to give up traditional signals, only to begin offering a separate digital beam.
Some lawmakers, angered at the delay, have begun calling for new action to speed the transition along.
Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell also has put forth a new plan asking all involved to take their fair share of the pain and get going, including a request that the major nets broadcast a chunk of their fall primetime line-up in hi-def. Nets are all on board.
TV stations don't have to return the traditional analog spectrum to the FCC until 2006, or until there is 85% market penetration, i.e., when most Americans own a digital set or a digital converter.
Televisions have a long shelf-life, so it's unlikely that the 85% benchmark will be met any time soon.
In those cities where TV stations are broadcasting digitally, it's unlikely that many viewers are getting the signal, either because they don't own a set capable of receiving it, or because cable operators don't carry the extra broadcast signal.
When it comes to the country's 350 or so public TV stations, about 70 have begun offering a digital signal. Noncoms aren't being held to today's deadline; they have an extra year.
