Big, Small Broadcasters Spar Over DTV Campaign

BIG, SMALL BROADCASTERS SPAR OVER DTV CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Association of Broadcasters and the low-power TV lobby continue to differ over the DTV education campaign, if not on the overarching goal of keeping analog viewers from losing their signals in the transition to digital. The National Association of Broadcasters said Thursday it will launch a Web site this month, LPTVAnswers.com, to provide information on how viewers can continue to receive those signals after the Feb. 17, 2009 transition to digital. Low-power stations are not required to go digital on that date. But the Community Broadcasters Association is concerned that viewers are being told that TV is going digital February 2009 when thousands of its stations won't be, and most of the DTV-to-analog converter boxes being subsidized by the government don't pass through the analog signals low-power stations will be sending out -- potentially for years after that transition date. CBA wants the government to require manufacturers to include analog pass-through in their boxes, saying not to do so violates the FCC's all-channel receiver act. That was a 1962 law that required "all television receivers shipped in interstate commerce, or imported into the United States, for sale or resale to the public be capable of receiving all channels allocated to television roadcasting."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6540677.html

* NAB Condemns CBA Remarks on DTV Education
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/03/13/daily.14/