The end of analog TV broadcasting

The end of analog TV broadcasting
By Steven Helle, a journalism professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
Published March 6, 2007

If you are among the 66 percent of American households with analog television sets, you should know your set is scheduled to become extinct in about two years.

All full-powered TV signals are mandated by Congress to be entirely digital by that date. Of course, if you have cable or satellite service, it is most likely that your converter box will change the digital signals to analog so they can still be viewed on your set, but you should check with your signal provider.

For the 15 percent of American households that rely on over-the-air broadcast signals, their sets will just go dark, unless they have tossed that analog TV set in favor of a digital one or have purchased a digital-to-analog converter box.

Congress picked the date of Feb. 17, 2009, to make the switch because it will follow the Super Bowl and thus avoid the outcry from angry fans who cannot receive the broadcast. Congress and the Federal Communications Commission have been slogging toward a digital deadline for 10 years as they sought to free up airwaves for government use and private wireless communication.

But Congress has continually moved the finish line as broadcasters complained that they could not convert their signals to digital in time. There is still much concern among public broadcasting stations as to how they will finance the expensive transition, and there is always the possibility that Congress could move the drop-dead date yet again.

Because presumably many constituents who receive free over-the-air signals cannot afford cable or satellite service (or expensive digital TVs), Congress has allocated almost $1 billion to be handed out in $40 coupons so households might afford converter boxes. Households can begin requesting coupons on Jan. 1, 2008.

One of the few non-defense-related areas of President Bush's new budget that received a spending increase was the FCC's effort to educate the American public about how many of its sets will go dark on Feb. 17, 2009. Congress should approve that expenditure, because it seems many consumers are the last to know what the government and industry have decided regarding the future of their television sets.

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Steven Helle is a journalism professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He teaches communications law.