Early Analog Switch Lessons May Smooth U.S. DTV Switch
Broadcasters, cable operators and call takers learned lessons from the Feb. 17 analog turnoff by 421 stations that will smooth the DTV switch by the rest of full-power U.S. outlets in June, they told us. Coordination between broadcast and cable engineers, adding call takers at cable operators, the FCC and elsewhere, and consumer education on digital converter box use worked last month and should help June 12, they said. Some broadcast officials said Congress shouldn’t have pushed off the national transition four months, because that successful early switch (CD Feb 19 p1) showed the postponement’s cost to businesses outweighs the scant benefit to the public. But others said more time will greatly reduce problems on June 12.
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Most of those we spoke with said some viewers wouldn’t be ready whenever the main analog cutoff took place. In the days after Feb. 17, people flooded call centers with questions on hooking up converter boxes, using them to scan for digital channels, and antenna positioning. More time helps industry and government reach those least likely to make the switch -- though some will ignore information until they lose reception of all full-power terrestrial stations, they said.
“I've said for a long time the transition would be messy regardless of when the hard date would be,” and “the big tsunami has yet to come,” said FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. “Every person in the country will be affected the morning of June 13th, and on February 17th and 18th there was no market without an analog signal. It’s better to be over- prepared and to not let your guard down rather than be unprepared and be caught in a Katrina-type situation.” Stations in each market need to run their own call centers to handle questions most effectively, McDowell said. He said the FCC will examine lessons learned from Feb. 17 at Thursday’s open commission meeting. (See the separate report in this issue.) The other FCC members weren’t available to comment.
“There was definitely the fear that DTV Part One could be a repeat of Hurricane Katrina as opposed to Y2K, but the result was definitely Y2K” and that bodes well for future analog shutoffs, said an NAB spokesman. “We know that awareness is saturated, but we also know that human nature is such that a certain number of late adopters, no matter what the marketing, will not act.” Most stations that made the switch last month took 50 to 200 calls, the spokesman said. That would work out to 21,050 to 84,200 total.
Call takers at 888-CALL-FCC received fewer questions than expected, because about 40 percent of callers used an automated system and didn’t need further help, said Rob Stoddard, the NCTA’s senior vice president. The average call lasted six or seven minutes, longer than expected, he said. Cable operators’ decisions to have more call takers on hand around the transition were vindicated, and there may be more spikes in calls, said Stoddard. Broadcast and cable engineers “very quickly” started working closely together before Feb. 17, and that paid off, he added. “The broadcasters and the cable operators will find it easier to talk to each other in the years ahead.”
The WXXI Public Broadcasting Council handled 330 calls in the week through Feb. 26, more than twice the predicted average through its FCC contract, as fewer people than expected attended education events, said General Manager Susan Rogers. “It doesn’t hit people’s daily experience. When they're confronted with it, it suddenly dawns on them that they may be affected or they may know someone who is.” The station changed its approach and started asking people to help neighbors and family members who may be unprepared, she added.
About 90 percent of the 5,000 or so calls to Gray TV stations that went all-digital last month involved converter box set-up, said President Bob Prather. Although many calls lasted 30 seconds, a few took an hour and in some cases staffers offered to go to viewers’ homes, he said. “We took the position of one customer at a time,” Prather said. “I have no reason to suspect [June 12] won’t be smooth just like this.”
Prather and several broadcast lawyers see little need for the congressionally mandated DTV delay, and the nine stations of Gray’s 36 that haven’t ended analog broadcasts will do that as soon as they can. “I think it’s totally ridiculous, and it just creates confusion for the next four months,” said Prather. “It makes me sick that they delayed it.” The delay was “confusing, costly and burdensome to broadcasters and confusing to the public,” lawyer Peter Tannenwald said. The switch will go better than expected, but “the delay will not reduce the disruption enough to justify the cost,” he added. And broadcasters continue to spend heavily to power analog transmitters, lawyer Frank Jazzo said. “I suspect that many viewers who would not have been ready for February 17 will also not be ready for June 12.”