GAO: DTV transition on track, but hurdles remain
The overwhelming majority of full-power TV stations are prepared for the digital TV transition, but 11 percent expect to lose an average of 23,000 viewers after they turn off their analog signals, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last week. The report did not give specific reasons for why some stations expect to lose viewers.
Ninety-one percent of the 1,122 TV stations surveyed are airing DTV signals and the rest expect to be digital by the Feb. 17 shutoff of analog TV. GAO found that 68 percent of stations are broadcasting at full strength, and 68 percent (not necessarily the same 68 percent) are on their final post-transition channel.
Some hurdles still remain. Roughly 23 percent of respondents still need to move to their permanent digital channel; 101 of those must move to a channel currently occupied by another station. Nineteen stations still need to build a broadcast tower.
In other DTV news, Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) amended a supplemental war-spending bill to triple the government’s federal aid for digital upgrades for low-power stations and translators from $65 million in 2010 to $65 million each year from 2009 to 2012, according to Congressional Quarterly. Such facilities, not subject to the DTV hard date, are expected to broadcast in analog for some time beyond Feb. 17.
Web page posted XXX
Copyright 2008 by Current LLC
