Dearth of DTV Switches Before June 12 to Help Transition
There’s a silver lining for viewers, broadcasters and the FCC in DTV rules that made it harder for many stations to stop analog service before June 12 (CD March 17 p8), industry lawyers and officials said. Only 158 full-power outlets, 15 percent of those still transmitting in analog, will stop the service before the nationwide deadline, according to FCC figures. Despite the previous concerns of some commissioners and others, there won’t be many minitransitions like the one Feb. 17, our research found. That should reduce viewer confusion and make it easier for the FCC and stations to educate viewers, said industry and agency officials.
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April 16 is the only day a large number of stations will cut analog broadcasts before the deadline, we found. That’s the first day commercial broadcasters can make the digital switch under new FCC rules (CD March 16 p4). Of the 77 stations that will, 16 are ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC affiliates, many of which must take extra steps including opening help centers and staffing helplines. The same day, 26 stations affiliated with the Trinity Broadcasting Network and 24 PBS affiliates will go all-digital.
“The FCC clearly expressed a preference that stations stay on as long as possible” in analog, said broadcast lawyer David Oxenford. “Most people took their advice,” and the stepped-up education required of Big Four affiliates switching early may have figured in decisions, too, he said. An additional 15 Big Four affiliates will go digital-only between April 16 and June 11. The NAB declined to comment, because most of the stations going all-digital between now and June 11 aren’t members, said a spokeswoman.
Of stations held by publicly owned broadcasters, Nexstar has the largest number of commercial stations that will end analog by June 11, at nine. Ion Media owns seven. One station each owned by Fox Television Stations, Gray TV, McGraw-Hill and Media General will stop by then. Ion is turning off analog service at some stations, but it’s waiting until June 12 to go digital at about 45 of its 59 stations, said Executive Vice President John Lawson. “It’s a cost move,” he said. “We've been pretty judicious in switching off” analog. In at least one case a broadcast lease is expiring, and elsewhere “we joined the majority of broadcasters who had already turned off without a whole lot of apparent disruption,” Lawson said.
A major network affiliate will continue broadcasting in analog until June 12 in each market that hasn’t gone all- digital, Commissioner Robert McDowell said. “This helps ease the rest of the country into the digital broadcasting world, but at the same time does not diminish the size of the wave that will make landfall on the morning of June 13th.” The lack of “any competing dates on a marketwide basis” to stop analog before June 12 will keep everyone focused on that date, he added. “That should help minimize consumer confusion.”
Consumers got “more time” to apply for digital converter box coupons, order the devices and install and test them, because few stations are going digital before June 12, said Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Cathy Seidel. “Fewer stations in fewer markets” going all-digital soon makes it more feasible for the FCC to concentrate on viewers unaware of the transition, she added. For stations making the switch April 16, the commission will have a staffer or “partner” in the markets affected and make sure there are “walk-in” consumer help centers and an ample converter-box supply, said Seidel.
March 27 to April 15, 23 PBS stations will transition to digital because of financial hardship. The period is the only one besides April 16 that we found before June 12 when many full-power broadcasters will stop analog service. “It makes it easier in terms of messaging” to consumers about when the transition will take place, said David Donovan, president of the Association for Maximum Service Television. “There are some issues and some things that we need to sit down with the commission and the stations to make sure this transition moves forward in as seamless a fashion as possible, and a lot of this boils down to the nitty gritty” now that the FCC appears to have dealt with most major DTV orders, he added.
The small number of minitransitions “will cut down on the confusion” among viewers because “there are not very many that are transitioning” and stations “can all aim at one date for a unified message,” said industry lawyer Anne Crump. “The commission was fairly upfront in saying it was discouraging people from going early. They talked about how it would waste the time Congress gave them and it seems like it’s worked.”
A total of 927 full-power stations will maintain analog broadcasts until June 12, said an FCC public notice released Tuesday night. That’s 52 percent of the U.S. total. The FCC’s speed in releasing spreadsheets of plans for all stations that haven’t already transitioned -- four hours after the deadline to notify the regulator -- “was amazing,” Crump said.