[opendtv] Chaos seen if DTV transition plan falters
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 15:28:12 -0500
Got to http://www.eet.com/
Under "Design Articles," click on "Digital TV," on the column on the
left of the screen. Then click on the article shown in the "DTV
Transition" section. It's repeated in its entirety below.
Lots of people have been dragging their feet. No other explanation for
such complete ignorance among the great unwashed, when digital
broadcasting started 8 years ago.
Bert
------------------------------------------------------
February 02, 2006
Chaos seen if DTV transition plan falters
By George Leopold
WASHINGTON - Market researchers are predicting chaos unless details of a
government digital TV transition plan to subsidize converter-box
purchases are resolved soon and communicated effectively to consumers
who rely solely on broadcast TV.
=20
Market researchers Points North Group and Horowitz Associates will
release survey results on Friday (Feb. 3) revealing that only 13 percent
of respondents knew that U.S. analog broadcasts would end in three
years. Only 23 percent of consumers surveyed were aware that analog sets
will go "dark" by a February 2009 transition date unless analog sets are
connected to a downconverter box.
The survey, conducted by telephone, reached 500 people in December 2005.
The results underscore the huge logistical task regulators face in
setting up a voucher program to provide analog viewers with the
converter boxes they will need to receive digital broadcast signals on
analog TVs by 2009. The subsidy program was included in a budget bill
approved earlier this week by the House that set the hard DTV transition
date.
The budget bill creates a $990 million program to subsidize consumer
purchases of converter boxes. U.S. households would be entitled to apply
for two $40 coupons to buy converter boxes, which are expected to cost
between $40 and $60 each. So far, Thomson and LG have expressed interest
in supplying converter boxes for the program.
The program will be administered by the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration, a Commerce Department agency. The agency
must act quickly to work out: eligibility requirements, who will supply
converter boxes, how they can be purchased, and how to educate consumers
about the coming changes.
"It could be a year before all the details are worked out," said Stewart
Wolpin, a senior analyst for Points North (Larchmont, N.Y.). "The
message to the government is, 'You'd better get your ducks in a row
very, very fast.'"
Among the stumbling blocks to a smooth transition is a battle between
broadcasters and cable operators over whether digital signals should be
down-converted-something the National Association of Broadcasters
opposes.
More important, said Wolpin, the consumers most in need of the
converter-box subsidies-mostly poor, inner-city residents who rely
solely on over-the-air broadcasting-have the least access to information
about details of the DTV transition.
The subsidy program will be funded through the sale at auction of
spectrum returned by broadcasters. The government wants to use the
recovered spectrum for public safety and broadband wireless applications
while generating badly needed revenues.
But the market researchers found that U.S. consumers aren't buying that
explanation and remain suspicious of government motives in the switch to
DTV. Forty-one percent of those surveyed said the transition is designed
to sell more new TV and cable services.
Points North estimates that 26 percent of U.S. households with cable
have upgraded to digital services. About 15 percent of U.S. households
have HDTV receivers, but a large proportion are not connected to digital
services.
As a result, said Wolpin, there's a "huge chasm" between U.S. digital
haves and have-nots. "There's a big difference between wanting to
upgrade [to DTV] and being forced to upgrade."
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