TeleTruth

Posted in response to articles by Associated Press and Broadcast & Cable:

“Digital TV Transition Concerns Get Technical By John Dunbar, AP
Even if all goes smoothly, the digital television shift is likely to generate hundreds of thousands of complaints from television viewers around the country.
http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2008/09/24/digital-tv-transition-concerns-get-technical/

We just completed a real-world test drive of digital converter boxes in rural Hunterdon County NJ. The first of its kind study can be seen at www.teletruth.org.

The pilot study showed and supports the findings outlined by Centris. When the DTV digital tornado hits next February, thousands of Hunterdon County OTA households will go dark or lose virtually all of their broadcast channels. Ironically, Hunterdon is part of New York under the FCC regulations but every converter test showed “no signal”.

While I concur with the need for immediate action to protect millions of households across the country that are similar to Hunterdon, the DTV crisis may be too late to fix with less than five months to go.

From my perspective, the FCC and NTIA played down the antenna and weak signal issues and this misguided and intentional ommission of the information is unforfiveable.

I attended this week’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing and FCC Chairman Martin continues to spin Wilmington as a success by comparing complaints to all households that include cable and satellite. The fact is that over 40% of complaints were technical in nature involving the antenna and weak signals.

Chairman Martin admitted that he is very concerned and said that 15% of OTA households are at risk of losing some or all of the TV viewing.

For the record, we are requesting that the FCC declare Hunterdon County an “at-risk” community, conduct immediate field testing and build upon our pilot test, assign dedicated FCC staff to Hunterdon and come to Hunterdon to meet all 26 Mayor’s and the community of approximately 130,000.

To be clear, with less than five months to go, Hunterdon County OTA households will be decimated when the tornado hits. At this late stage of the DTV transition, I have already begun planning “search and rescue” operations. The DTV transiton date is in the middle of winter in New Jersey. If Chairman Martin really is serious about “applying” what the FCC learned from Wilmington, he should give strong consideration to delaying the cutover to late spring or summer. At least then, consumers who need to buy a new antenna or upgrade the existing one, will be able to climb onto the roof without snow.

The FCC and NTIA always knew about these issues and they should have been covered in the DTV coupon program. I have cost estimates for a new antenna, rotor and installation exceeding $500, however, finding an antenna installer or a complete package that is guaranteed to work is impossible.

Lastly, at the recent Senate Committee hearing the Senator from Minnesota asked if Chairman Martin would come to her state to install an antenna. Wewould like to extend the same offer to Chairman Martin to assist me with installing a new roof antenna for my home.

http://www.newnetworks.com/dtvreport.htm

Tom Allibone
Director of Audits, Teletruth

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 28th, 2008 at 9:37 pm and is filed under DTV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.