Gov't puts off imposition of digital TV, but at what cost?
Go ahead, adjust your TV set. Tweak those rabbit ears for a more-perfect picture. Turn the sound up and down. You can do so with impunity.
For the next few months, anyway.
In case you hadn't heard, the much-dreaded final, irreversible switch from analog to digital television was put off by Congress until June 12, a move signed by President Obama last week. Originally, broadcast TV stations were slated to stop airing programs on their old analog frequencies today, meaning any nondigital TV not already hooked to cable or satellite or at very least a digital-conversion box would go dead - nothing but snow. All the local stations - Channels 2, 5, 7, 9, 26, 32, etc. - would have gone exclusively to the new digital frequencies they were assigned back in the '90s with the onset of high-definition TV.
I'm of two minds on this. First, while the transition means nothing to anyone watching TV on a cable or satellite box, which long ago went digital, it seems fairly clear that many U.S. households were not prepared to go digital over the air. Despite all the public-service announcements and an extensive government coupon program designed to help viewers pay for the conversion boxes, the Nielsen Company estimates 6.5 million households weren't ready for the final imposition.
That includes my household, my friends. Although I have one TV on the satellite, and dutifully got my conversion coupons for two others, times being what they are, I could never scrape together the extra money required to get a decent conversion box, and they expired. Now I'm looking into switching satellite services to cut costs and add an extra room connection, so I won't need to worry about a conversion box. The extra time, therefore, is much appreciated.
Yet otherwise, personal interest aside, I'm not sure what the delay achieves. Although there's reportedly additional coupon money in the new government stimulus package passed by Congress last week, how many of those 6.5 million households will make use of the extra time to prepare? As CableFax columnist Steve Effros recently wrote, perhaps it would be better just "ripping off the Band-Aid" and letting viewers scramble to adapt, which is what they're likely to do in June anyway.
Then again, how many are like reader George E. Bez, of Schaumburg, who wrote me last September to insist he would simply not be following into the world of digital TV. This was the end of his TV watching.
In part for that reason, the major networks are somewhat concerned about the transition leading toward the end of broadcast dominance. They've always enjoyed a substantial advantage in audience reach over cable channels, but with the digital transition helping to push over the last few holdouts who resisted cable or satellite, that advantage is diminishing by the day.
As Joel Brinkley wrote over a decade ago in "Defining Vision: The Battle for the Future of Television," the major networks initially embraced the idea of HDTV precisely because they knew it would give them vast new reaches of the broadcast spectrum (to accommodate the increased signal stream required for HDTV), what former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt once called "beachfront property on the Cyber Sea" of the public airwaves. I never thought they would so docilely give back their old analog frequencies, but they were going to - until the delay.
The Fox network's News Corp. conglomerate immediately cheered the delay, and you can bet it only emboldens other networks to drag their feet in the transition. Some wags have already pointed out that the new deadline will fall during the NBA Finals. You think ABC wants to disrupt 6.5 million potential viewers during one of its marquee annual sporting events?
They're going to have to give those old frequencies up at some point, however, because wireless companies like Verizon and AT&T have reportedly already paid billions for usage rights on those public airwaves to launch new products. Which only raises the question, why aren't the major broadcast networks and their local channels paying to use the public airwaves for their new digital frequencies in the first place?
Now that's an issue Congress should take up while waiting for the next digital-transition deadline to arrive.
In the air
Remotely interesting: The Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has named its 2009 Silver Circle inductees to honor career achievement. They include WLS Channel 7 meteorologist Jerry Taft, WFLD Channel 32 anchor-reporter Robin Robinson, WTTW Channel 11 reporter-host Elizabeth Brackett, WGN Channel 9 news director Paul Davis, WBBM Channel 2 courtroom artist Marcia Danits, WMAQ Channel 5 cameraman James Stricklin and, posthumously, Channel 9 producer-director Arne Harris. The induction ceremony is set for April 24 at the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel Chicago.
Channel 32 has snatched up Carol Fowler as vice president and news director. ... Channel 7 has hired Jason Knowles as a general-assignment reporter.
End of the dial: Holiday music lifted adult-contemporary WLIT 93.9-FM to the top of the ratings in local monthly Arbitrends. All-news WBBM 780-AM was second, bolstered by Rod Blagojevich, with adult-urban WVAZ 102.7-FM, personality-talk WGN 720-AM and all-talk WLS 890-AM filling out the top five.
Maine Township High Schools are planning to celebrate two landmark anniversaries for their TV and radio stations. WMTH-FM celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and WMTH-TV its 45th. They're planning festivities around the Sept. 25 weekend. Interested alumni can e-mail alumni@wmth.com.