Getting Ready For the Death Of Analog TV

GETTING READY FOR THE DEATH OF ANALOG TV
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz Amy.Schatz@wsj.com]
The Federal Communications Commission may soon approve a plan that would require broadcast television station owners to run at least four 30-second public-service ads a day about the digital transition. That number would increase to as many as 12 ads a day on each station as the Feb. 17, 2009, deadline approaches. Broadcasters, who object to the idea of donating so much valuable airtime to the ad effort, recently proposed an alternative plan that would have local stations voluntarily air at least a dozen public-service announcements a week, as well as two separate ads a week on each of the Big Four and Spanish-language networks. The proposal appears to be gaining support among the FCC's Republican members, although FCC Chairman Martin and the FCC's two Democratic commissioners have so far supported the plan requiring more-frequent ads. The dispute highlights just how uneasy regulators and lawmakers are growing over the country's switch next year to digital broadcasts. In little more than a year, millions of older television sets will simply stop working. The potential consumer backlash could be huge. Broadcasters' offer to increase their commitments provides them significantly more flexibility on when the 30-second ads could run. Station owners could run the ads anytime between 5 a.m. and 1 a.m. to fulfill their voluntary commitment. The FCC has proposed requiring stations to run at least one ad every six hours. Regulators worry that the current public-service announcements aren't being shown when most people are watching TV. Generally, public-service announcements run most frequently between midnight and 6 a.m., a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found. On broadcast stations, just 13% of donated PSAs ran during prime-time viewing hours of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120166086841527569.html?mod=todays_us_pe...
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* Tuning Into Digital TV
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Stephen H. Wildstrom]
Lots of folks are confused about exactly how the February, 2009, conversion to digital broadcasts will affect them. Here's what you need to know
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2008/tc20080129_730100...