DarrellP said:
How about a quick recap so we don't have to read that link?
Actually the article below talks about DVT, not HDTV, but at least here in Atlanta, broadcasters are transmiting either both SD and HD DTV or just HD over their digital equipment.
Digital Deadline Gets Squishy
By Michael Grebb |
02:00 AM Jul. 22, 2004 PT
WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers debated Wednesday whether the government should dole out billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies to speed up the transition from analog to digital television.
At a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, several witnesses said Congress should set a hard deadline after which TV stations would stop transmitting analog over-the-air television signals.
But they admitted that turning off analog TV signals all at once would create massive disruptions for television viewers across the country: Millions of homes without cable or satellite services would be forced to get special converters to receive the new digital signals.
"I would not underestimate the problem," said James Snider, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation. "If there's any granny in the U.S. who is going to lose her TV, that's a problem."
Snider supports an approach used by Berlin, which in August 2003 became the first major city in the world to completely switch from analog to digital TV signals.
But German officials heavily subsidized the transition by giving out free converters to low-income TV viewers. German cable operators also "down converted" digital signals back to analog to minimize the disruption to viewers.
As was evident during the hearing, lawmakers are growing increasingly impatient with the pace of the digital TV transition in the United States.
"I sense growing concern that, without a hard date, we may never see the timely end to the DTV transition in the United States," said subcommittee chairman Rep. Fred Upton (R-Michigan). "With public safety, not to mention commercial wireless carriers, in need of spectrum currently encumbered by broadcasters, time is of the essence."
Government agencies want to use portions of the spectrum for public-safety uses such as police and fire department communications.
Upton, who advocates a program to subsidize boxes for low-income consumers, went on to suggest "some fairly aggressive regulatory and/or congressional intervention," but admitted that opinions vary on how to get there.
According to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, U.S. broadcasters technically already operate under a hard deadline to relinquish their analog spectrum by Dec. 31, 2006.
But TV stations can get extensions if fewer than 85 percent of viewers in any market don't have digital TV sets or converters to receive the new digital signals.
Most experts agree that few, if any, U.S. television markets will be ready to go all digital by the 2006 deadline, which is why lawmakers are examining whether the Berlin model might speed the transition.
Several panelists were skeptical that limited subsidies that didn't affect all TV viewers -- rich and poor alike -- would garner much public support.
"That's a cost you imposed on them," said Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America. "I suspect that person will suggest that you fork over that 50 bucks."
Of course, subsidizing all the boxes could cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
Based on recent auctions of wireless spectrum, the federal government might only raise about $4 billion from selling off licenses to former analog TV spectrum, said Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Virginia).
He said about 45 million TV sets in the United States now receive only over-the-air broadcast signals. Assuming the high-end cost of $100 per converter, the federal government could spend as much as $4.5 billion to outfit those sets with digital converter boxes -- more than it might take in from auctions.
"I think we need to have a realistic view of what those costs are going to be," Boucher said.
But Snider said studies suggest that high-volume production could eventually push converter costs down to as little as $10 per box, enabling the government to subsidize converters and still come out ahead in the auctions.
Upton also said he hopes a combination of a hard deadline and low-income subsidies would spur mass production of boxes and lower prices quickly.
"This would be a very good development for all consumers," he said.
