News and Reviews....
The End of Analog TV ....... January 2005
By Robert Lieto
Once upon a Time ....... The story goes, that back in the last millennium, circa 1990, a number of folks very close to the center core of the TV industry, known as the "Grand Alliance" came up with a standard for digital Television (See our review HDTV... As I See It). The Standard specified Aspect Ratio, Scanning Lines, Type of Scanning process, What type of Compressions were to be used and finally the Data-Transport Structure. The course was a easy one to follow as described, we were "ready to go". The digital signal would be introduced and all Broadcast Television would be converted over very efficiently, in an established time frame. The Analog TV we had come to know would be turned off. A very easy concept on paper but as we have seen, a concept that has had countless unexpected twists.
Just before adjournment of December 2004, the Congress of the United States adopted a resolution setting December 31, 2006 as the target date for all 1,748 TV stations to end their analog broadcasts. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) promoted that specific turn off date. The push for turn off was made, so that security and intelligence influences can recapture the analog broadcast spectrum allowing it to be auctioned for public safety and wireless broadband usage.
Barton claims that the subsidies for set-top converters to low-income viewers, the ones typically using Analog TV exclusively, would be limited to about $1 Billion dollars, funded via part of the spectrum auctions on the returned analog bandwidth. Is that the chicken before the egg I see?
Confusingly, the Congressional action, for accelerated analog turn-off came within days of a decision by FCC Chairman Michael Powell, that could push back the DTV (Digital TV) deadline in the other direction. That current target is 2009. The FCC deadline date will be determined in March of 2005. The deadline delay comes from growing opposition from powerful interests, including broadcasters, who aren't ready to give up their analog channels.
The contradictory issues from Congress and the FCC are just the tip of the iceberg. The Tuner mandate which requires DTV tuners in most TV sets continues to face challenges, the Cable Plug and Play negotiations, between Cable companies and electronic component makers are often rocky to say the least, and copyright issues in Digital TV such as the Broadcast Flag are still battlegrounds. Almost lost, is the role of HDTV, as many broadcasters examine Standard Definition multicasting as a better use of TV spectrum.
What worries many is that the rural viewers, the ones that use analog broadcast as a way to get TV, and do not have the option of cable, will lose the ability to have TV period.. It is fact, that some folks in the good old United States do not have cable access to this day, and rely on Off Air Analog TV. National Association of Broadcasters, claim that if analog was to be turned off today, 73 million TV sets would be useless unless consumers bought a converter box (to accept digital Off-air signals, if present) at a total cost prediction of $22 billion, far beyond the $1 billion, Rep. Barton suggests. Broadcasters also oppose the "Ferree Plan" where broadcast signals carried via digital cable systems are to be considered "digital" TV. That fine point becomes essential under the current DTV transition Law, which allows local analog broadcasts to be turned off when 85% of local viewers can receive a digital signal. Cable (or satellite) retransmission would meet that literal mark - much to the broadcasters' dismay.
Separately, NBC Universal is trying to create a coalition that would ask Congress and the FCC to postpone the transition indefinitely. FCC chairman Powell says he will not tolerate anything beyond the 2009 date, and some of his Capitol Hill allies agree.
Comment ..... To wrap it all up and give it a bow, these are the issues:
Analog Broadcast TV Ends ................. December 2008 MAYBE
DTV tuner mandate: 50% of new sets 25 - 36 inch by July 2005; 100% by 2006 .... Proposal to revise deadline of 100% of these screen size, include tuner by March 2006
"Ferree Plan" for cable retransmission of Broadcast DTV Channels. FCC approval expected in December, likely to be postponed as broadcasters continue opposition to the plan.
Uni-directional Cable plug & Play .....About 5000 Cable Cards deployed with some problems
Bi-Directional Cable Plug & Play ..... Negotiations bogged down; NO Target Date.
Distribution of Hybrid digital set top boxes by cable operators .... July 2006 deadline marking end of cable distribution of such boxes; cable operators seeking extension until 2008.
UPDATE: FCC Chairman Powell resigns February 2005. Will the March Meeting still take place and if so will it solve the deadline Mystery date ?? We will have to wait and see.
For Past Articles on the Subject
Plug & Play April 2003
The H in HDTV July 2002
HDTV.....As I See It October 2001
