House bill allows some analog messages after DTV switch

The House of Representatives on Wednesday night unanimously passed a bill allowing television stations to broadcast emergency and informational messages in analog format in the days following the digital TV transition.

The Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act was approved by the Senate last month and now awaits the president's signature. It requires the Federal Communications Commission by January 15 to implement a plan to encourage broadcasters to provide analog messages with public safety information or information about the digital transition for 30 days following the nationwide switch to digital broadcasting on February 17.

The legislation has been endorsed by the National Association of Broadcasters.

"Coupled with our billion dollar campaign to educate Americans on the digital TV transition, this timely legislation will give broadcasters one final resource to ensure that no TV viewer is left behind due to insufficient information," NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton said.

However, not all broadcasters will be able to continue sending messages over analog, because new spectrum holders will have access to those airwaves after the switch, according to Graham Jones, the director of communications engineering for the NAB science and technology department.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Comcast in Washington and Oregon has announced that at the time of the DTV switchover, they will be turning on all cable users to digital only. The ads they have been playing saying if you have cable TV and will be fine are in direct contradiction to their announced plans.

Lovely.

If you have a digital tuner, you can still view channels 2-29 without a box. Any channels higher than that will require a cable card box for each and every device you have- that includes TV's, VCR's, DVR's (Tivo, etc), Apple TV, computers, etc. The first two will be free and all other set tops will be $1.99 / month.

Comcast stated their intent is to eliminate expanded basic service and offer digital at the higher prices (call me not surprised by that). There will still be basic cable, which includes over the air broadcasts and government channels to comply with regulations. All other content will be on the higher end plan.


I wonder how they get away with advertising that Comcast users don't have to take any action for the DTV switch, and yet when it happens, all of our sets will go dark unless we use a cable card system that they will rent to us? And that they are restructuring their pricing plans to force everyone to go to the highest level / highest price plan?

I shouldn't say 'forced' though really. If you want, you can use an antenna and get those over the air digital signals too.

I'm not sure cable is worth it at this point. This sort of action makes me look more and more at online content instead. All that is on cable is already availble largely for streaming where we choose the time and place to watch it. This may be a bad decision on Comcast's part.

[sanenazok]

Wow a cable company screwing over customers and lying. That's newsworthy.

[Bill_I]

More delusion from our ill-informed Congress. Next thing, they will tell us that the price of feathers has increased, therefore down is up. I am planning to attend the NAB convention in Vegas this spring, surely the DTV fiasco will be the hot topic. Please note that the misguided DTV conversion will take place AFTER the Super Bowl game. Wonder why ???

[Vegaman_Dan]

It's not 'screwing over customers'. It's called a 'service upgrade'. :)

[Captain Bebops]

Having owned an HDTV for over 8 years this transition has been slow in coming. It was supposed to happen in 2006. I think the transition will be a tempest in a teapot. A few other countries have already made the transition without much problem. Many are replacing their analog sets with HD sets many at bargain prices. For the over the air there are free after coupon converter boxes. You can't cancel the transition because many broadcasters have already invested heavily in gear especially transmitters for the transition. It's time that the inferior NTSC, often jokingly referred to as "not the same color", system die it's natural death.

[ddesy]

I thought it was "Never the Same Color" because of the difficulty of trying to match the color on different sets...

[zclayton2]

Okay, a laughable attemp to appease someone. But, after the the switch to digital broadcasting, who is going to be watching analog statice to get the messages?

[ddesy]

I think you will find that there are plenty of uninformed/under-informed/confused people who will see the messages.