At this writing (January 26, 2009), the US Senate unanimously passed the DTV Transition Date Bill (S.328) to
delay the shutdown of analog TV signals (on higher power, main station transmitters) from the long-announced date of February 17 until June 12. The Bill has been passed to the House of Representatives, and although action was expected today, it now looks like there will be a vote tomorrow, January 28.
A similar bill was
introduced in the House earlier in January, but it was blocked by Republicans on the basis that delaying the channel availability that would be freed up would endanger first responders and confuse the public. A two-thirds margin is required on a bill passed from the Senate, so the Republicans will block the first vote. But with the massive Democratic majority in the House it is virtually guaranteed that the Senate version will pass with no problem whatsoever when it gets voted on again within a few days – certainly before February 17!
I really, really hate to admit this but, on balance, I have to agree with the Republicans on this one – but not for their stated reasons. It means that I also disagree with the
NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), but that is not at all a new situation.
The transition has been long in the making, stations have been widely pro-active about helping their viewers understand the consequences of losing their TV signals if you currently view terrestrial services (if you "use an antenna," in their simpler language), and the numbers suggest that those who do have a 93% ready-rate for digital services on at least one TV receiver in their houses.
The delay has been initiated by fears that the coupon program (for $40 towards the cost of the $50 - $60 converter box (a tuner plus DAC plus analog modulator) has run out of funds. The coupons (two allowed for every household in the country) have only a 90 day validity so there are probably going to be a huge number of new ones issued very soon. (If you have received coupon(s) and do not use them before they expire, by the way, you cannot get replacements.)
Additional money is included in the contested stimulus package that lawmakers have promised to pass before the Presidents’ Day break. Although what the DTV transition has to do with economic stimulus I am having trouble figuring out…
The Republicans who opposed Waxman’s House Bill cannot conceivably, accurately claim that a four month delay in moving the transition is going to kill first responders (although they have so claimed). Once the RF channels have emptied (apart from low-power stations and translators – no-one seems to care about those viewers and possible interference with their services), it will be many months before the FCC can organize themselves to start a bidding war, and only then will the Republicans’ friends be able to make money from new services, only a small fraction of which will have to do with public safety.
But my concerns are about inertia and money. The public has been warned for months and months, and in some cases for years; those that have been slow to react deserve, I think, to have the real facts of life happen to them and lose their TV. Yes, I feel concern that many of those using rabbit ears and roof-mounted antennas are society’s vulnerable. But being vulnerable should not excuse inertia.
On the money side I am concerned that all these stations have already budgeted for there being no energy costs for their analog plant and no labor costs for maintenance after February 17. That will no longer be so if a delay is legislated, and they will have another four month’s of double billing for their transmitter sites. A typical 50 kW (visual) TV transmitter site operates at an overall efficiency of less than 10%. Would you like that power bill for another 120 days? That is huge, absolutely huge, and for a PBS station it could be a near killer for their services.
I know of one PBS station, in fact, which has been coaxing their analog equipment along for the last six months just to keep it alive. They have been breaking FCC rules on power levels just to reduce the stress on the plant. Will they be able to tease another four months out of it?
If I was running a TV station I would open those breakers on February 17, 2009 and damn the consequences. Congress might know a lot about producing political theater and they’d probably all love a guest appearance on
Sesame Street, but they know nothing, it seems, about running a business.
