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Regulators are hoping a four-month extension of the nation's digital TV transition will avert chaos. Credit: greenkozi via Flickr.
Television stations that haven't yet switched off their analog, over-the-air signals will begin doing so today. And federal regulators are keeping their fingers crossed that the transition will go according to script, thanks to an extension awarded in January by the Obama administration to give broadcasters and community groups four extra months to prepare viewers. According to a story in today's Times, Fearful of a backlash from nearly 6 million unprepared Americans who stood to lose their broadcast TV signals, President Obama and Congress put off the long-planned digital transition scheduled for Feb. 17 until today for most of the country.
They also poured an additional $650 million into the switch, including reducing a backlog of 4 million requests for $40 government coupons to subsidize the purchase of special digital converter boxes so that older televisions could receive the new signals. Will the extra effort help avoid chaos as Americans wake up to find their TV signals scrambled? Stay tuned. We'll keep you posted. -- Alex Pham
Let us know if you're having any trouble shifting from analog to digital TV. You can also click here for more details on making the DTV transition.
About 400 TV stations are shutting off their analog broadcasts at midnight tonight as part of the nation's switch to all-digital signals. But the new era hasn't gotten off to a great start for some viewers.
As we noted in a story today, some people are getting fewer channels -- even though they did everything the government and broadcasters told them to do as part of the DTV transition. The problems generally stem from the different technological characteristics of digital signals versus analog.
Many people, including viewers of the major broadcast networks in Los Angeles, have nearly four more months to get ready because Congress allowed stations to delay the switch until June 12. One key to improving your reception during that time appears to be upgrading your antenna.
A few readers have pointed me toward the YouTube video, shown above, on how to make your own digital TV antenna using equipment that would make MacGyver proud: six wire clothes hangers, a piece of wood, a dozen washers and a variety of other household items. Assembly doesn't look too difficult -- about the same level of expertise as required ...
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President Obama signed the digital TV delay into law. Credit: Getty Images.
President Obama made the digital TV delay official today, signing legislation to put off the switch until June 12, the White House said.
"Millions of Americans, including those in our most vulnerable communities, would have been left in the dark if the conversion had gone on as planned," Obama said in a written statement. "This solution is an important step forward as we work to get the nation ready for digital TV."
Not everyone will get the benefit of that extra time. Though the major TV stations in Los Angeles won't turn off their analog signals until the new deadline, the law allows stations to apply to go ahead on the original date -- at the end of the day next Tuesday -- or anytime between now and June 12.
Nearly 500 stations have applied to pull their analog plug on Tuesday, although the FCC may block some early transitions. The most likely places the FCC will step in are markets where most stations want to make the switch early and many residents are unprepared.
-- Jim Puzzanghera
The Federal Communications Commission today provided TV viewers and broadcasters some clarity about the nationwide switch to digital television, which Congress voted to delay until June 12.
Acting FCC Chairman Michael J. Copps. (Credit: Joshua Roberts / For The Times) Acting FCC Chairman Michael J. Copps said today that the major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC/Telemundo -- have vowed that their owned-and-operated stations would not turn off their analog signals until that date. Though many local affiliates are independently operated, the networks' pledge puts pressure on station owners to wait.
The legislation, which is awaiting President Obama's expected signature, allows stations to make the digital transition before June 12 with FCC approval.
At least one L.A.-area station, the News Corp.-owned KTTV Fox 11, will keep its analog signal going until June 12. We're still working to figure out the plans of other local broadcasters.
Copps said today that the FCC would set a high hurdle for approving early switches in markets where all stations want to make the transition before June 12. Though the agency may allow individual stations to switch early, commissioners worry that allowing all stations to turn off their analog signals early could leave unprepared viewers with no access to any TV.
"We reserve the right to deny those requests if we find that it would not serve the public interest or if it would frustrate Congress' goal of giving consumers adequate time to prepare," he said.
The federal agency announced that stations would have to notify the FCC by Monday if they want to turn off their analog broadcast signals on the original date of Feb. 17.
Stations had prepared themselves for that date and face increased costs -- including thousands of dollars a month in electricity bills -- for continuing to transmit their analog signal along with the new digital one most already have been airing for months. So there are strong reasons ...
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FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein. (Photo credit: Brendan Smialowski / Bloomberg News.)
Fresh off Wednesday's action by Congress to delay the switch to digital TV until June 12, a top Federal Communications Commission official will be in Los Angeles next week for three town hall meetings on the now even-more-complicated transition.
FCC commissioners have spent the past several months traveling around the country to large cities and markets where at least 15% of the households rely on antennas to watch TV. Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein drew Los Angeles.
He will be answering questions Monday in three locations: at the West Covina Senior Center from 10 to 11:30 a.m.; the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church from 12:30 to 2 p.m.; and Cal State L.A. from 6 to 8 p.m. More details are available here (PDF).
President Obama is expected to sign the legislation delaying the transition, currently planned for Feb. 17, by nearly four months. Adelstein, a
Democrat, has been critical of how the Bush administration handled the
transition. He applauded the planned delay for giving the FCC and others
more time to help viewers prepare.
-- Jim Puzzanghera
 Congress this afternoon granted a four-month reprieve to the millions of consumers who are at risk of losing access to TV signals during the switch from over-the-air television to digital broadcasting.
In a 264-158 vote, the House of Representatives approved a bill to push the transition to June 12 from Feb. 17. President Obama has promised to sign the legislation, which passed the Senate last week. The law will require TV stations to keep broadcasting their analog signals until June 12. Consumer advocates say that as many as 10 million viewers currently get their programming solely from over-the-air broadcasts and are unprepared for the digital transition.
"Consumers are confused about where to buy their converter box, about which box to buy, how to hook up their box, what to do if they lose a channel they once got and whether they need a new antenna," said Joel Kelsey, a policy analyst with Consumers Union. "Changing the date allows them more time to grapple with those questions."
But the delay also could make the confusing transition even more perplexing for some viewers.
TV stations are allowed to seek federal approval to turn off their analog signals before the new deadline. So instead of nearly all broadcasters making the switch on Feb. 17, stations now may ...
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 Dire reports are out today declaring the death of attempts by the new government to delay next month's nationwide switch to digital TV. The House failed to pass a bill that would postpone the switch from Feb. 17 to June 12.
The Washington Post calls that "a setback for the Obama administration", as does the Associated Press, which says the bill was defeated.
But don't read too much into the move. Supporters of the delay still expect it to pass as soon as next week.
The measure, which the Senate approved Monday, needed a two-thirds majority to pass the House on an expedited basis. Strong Republican opposition prevented the fast-tracking. But normal rules require only a simple majority, and the bill received that and more. The House vote was 258-168 in favor of a delay.
Rep. Rick Boucher, the Virginia Democrat who chairs the House telecommunications subcommittee, told me he was optimistic the chamber would agree to President Obama's request and vote to put off the digital transition until June so about 6.5 million viewers won't lose their TV signals next month.
“The likelihood is we’ll come back next week” and pass it, he said.
A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat, said she was looking for a way to hold the vote soon.
-- Jim Puzzanghera
Photo credit: Valerie Everett via Flickr
Hold onto your rabbit ears: People unprepared for the nation's digital TV transition may get a four-month reprieve.
The Senate today voted unanimously to delay the transition to all-digital broadcasts, originally scheduled for Feb. 17, until June 12. If the measure passes the House, homes that get TV the old-fashioned way -- over the air -- will have extra time to get ready.
A delay would give the Obama administration the extra time it has been requesting to whip the converter-box program into shape. The program gave $40 coupons for the special converter boxes needed to make digital signals work with their analog TV sets, but it ran out of money early this month, and the waiting list has been growing. Reuters says: Many lawmakers worry that an estimated 20 million mostly poor, elderly and rural households are not ready for the switch, which requires owners of older television sets receiving over-the-air signals to buy a converter box or subscribe to cable or satellite TV.
The intention of the digital-TV transition is to deliver clearer over-the-air pictures and free up valuable spectrum for public safety officials' communication systems. Critics of a delay say the nation has received ample warning about the transition and that the nation should flip the switch already, as Hawaii and Wilmington, N.C., have.
It's hard not to laugh about this all when you watch the spoof public service announcement, above, from the "Talkshow With Spike Feresten." But it's also hard not to think about the trouble that grannies all over the country may face as they try to make sense of this whole mess.
-- Chris Gaither
 LAS VEGAS -- Despite all the buzz at last week's Consumer Electronics Show about the connected home, some companies still believe the average consumer isn't ready for a world of DLNA, UPnP and MoCA. Just typing those acronyms makes me think they're right. Anyway, there were a couple of sneakerware-based offerings that caught my eye, one of which was from disk-drive-manufacturer Seagate.
 Seagate has been pitching its FreeAgent external hard drives to consumers in sort of an eat-your-vegetables way, arguing that they need to back up their photos, music and other digital media in case their PCs fail. How ... compelling. To sweeten the deal, it plans to offer a $129 docking station next month called the FreeAgent Theater that will let users display the contents of their external (or USB) drives on their big-screen TVs. I saw a demo of the device at CES and was impressed by how easy it was to find media stored on a drive, play it and do simple productions, such as digital-photo slideshows with music. One caveat: The picture quality varied with the source material, with high-definition files looking very good on the big screen, the lower-resolution files less so....
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CNN and Facebook announced today that Web watchers could enjoy Barack Obama's inauguration interactively with a talky-chatty Web TV doohicky the two companies developed together. The application will be running at cnn.com/live and will allow Facebookers to see what their friends are saying about the proceedings. The festivities will begin at 7 a.m. Pacific time -- just when most of us out here are blearily checking Facebook to see whether we got any overnight wall posts.
CNN.com President KC Estenson told MediaWeek that despite the early start time, CNN and Facebook had high hopes. "We're building the technical infrastructure for the possibility that this may be the most watched event ever on the Internet."
It'd be nice if Estenson pointed to the current online viewership record, but he didn't, so ... I'm not quite sure what it is. A long time ago in 2007 the Live Earth concert brought in 237,000 simultaneous viewers. It would seem that a 15-month-old number like that shouldn't be hard to beat, considering the visibility of the event. It's also possible that the record was set during the 2008 Beijing Olympics (NBC's online distributor Limelight expected it to be), but NBC never gave out simultaneous-viewing numbers. We just know, for instance, that NBC.com served 13.5 million video streams in the first four days of the Olympics -- meaning an average of 3.3M streams per day, or about 140,000 an hour.
Inexact calculations to be sure, but they offer a sense that in terms of simultaneous viewing, cracking the 1 million barrier almost certainly hasn't been done yet, and even 500,000 is probably still a milestone.
We'll follow up with CNN after the event to see whether they've released the numbers.
-- David Sarno
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