Border towns and low power stations still broadcasting analog

O-O · 07-28-2009, 09:21 AM

I guess some people aren't getting ready for DTV because they still have access to analog through border town stations or low power stations. Anybody know when those stations will have to transition to digital signals?

Quote:

Nearly 1.3 million U.S. households lacking digital TV reception were still watching TV over the air two weeks after the analog shutdown, according to Sara Erichson, president of North American Media Client Services North America for Nielsen. Virtually all of the nation’s full-power TV stations ceased regular analog broadcasting June 12.

“As of June 28, 60 percent of completely non-ready homes were still able to view some television by watching a low-power station, a foreign station near the Canadian or Mexican borders, or a U.S. broadcast station that is available to them via a translator,” Erichson wrote in a note to clients later posted on the company’s blog. “As a consequence, television viewing in these homes has not disappeared completely, although viewing choices are extremely limited.”

Border and LP Stations Take Up DTV Disruption Slack

Aaron62 · 07-28-2009, 09:59 AM

60% of unready homes watching analog still, but are not able to watch dtv means that on June 12th, 2009 there were only about 520,000 homes that were truely unable to get any television signals overall. That's pretty impressive in the grand scheme of things IMHO.

Piggie · 07-28-2009, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by O-O

Anybody know when those stations will have to transition to digital signals?

When the rules are written for them to transition. There are no current rules forcing a transition for LP, CA or TX licenses.

Right now that would be a disaster to force such a change. Many of the translators in particular are community owned to provide coverage for decades where they didn't ever even have analog. It's not too expensive to put up a translator out in a corn field for example on a silo. Maybe in the past it was $20,000 in hardware if they had a structure already. Many of these stations are supported by donations from locals. To force them to go digital would simply mean a great number of them would just go silent.

Maybe they should have take some of the 700MHz auction money and spent it on digital transmitter upgrades for remote community owned translators.

Aaron62 · 07-28-2009, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Piggie

Maybe they should have take some of the 700MHz auction money and spent it on digital transmitter upgrades for remote community owned translators.

That's a great idea Piggie. Why the heck didn't the FCC think of that?

I was going to say, why don't people in rural areas just get satellite, but when you do the math for a translator far a town of say, 500 people, that $20,000 becomes only $40 per person.


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