Despite legislation passed by Congress moving the date of the national transition to all digital television over-the-air broadcasting to June 12th, as many as 681 of the nation’s nearly 1,800 broadcasters have either already made the switch or have filed applications to go digital on the original date of next Tuesday, February 17th.
The Federal Communications Commission says it has recently received notice from 491 full-power broadcasters that want to terminate their traditional, over-the-air signals on February 17th. The FCC says another 190 stations had already made the switch or had previously told the agency they planned to make the switch on February 17th.
The DTV delay legislation passed by Congress last week does allow stations to go ahead and switch to all digital on the original February 17th date as long as they can show convince the FCC that will be in the public interest.
It’s unclear how many of the 491 stations that have only recently notified the FCC they want to make the switch on February 17th will be allowed to do so.
This week the FCC said it will consider a number of factors in evaluating whether to allow the 491 stations to make the switch on February 17th. Among those factors:
• Whether all or most of the stations in a market has already switched to all digital or is planning to make the switch on February 17th.
• How many of the viewers in a market are unprepared for the transition.
The FCC says it may require some stations wanting to make the switch next week to submit additional information to explain and justify how their early termination of their analog signals advances the public interest. The agency says such additional information can include significant economic, technical, contractual and other business reasons that support termination of analog on February 17th, as well as efforts being made to protect consumers from service disruptions.
“The Commission will scrutinize such information closely in light of the important interests at stake to determine whether a compelling case can be made,” according to an FCC statement.
A complete list of stations that have notified the FCC they intend to make the switch on February 17th has been posted on the agency’s web site as both a PDF document and an Excel spreadsheet.
Any decisions by the FCC to block any of the 491 stations from making the switch on February 17th will have to be made extremely fast, with that date now just four days away.
There certainly appear to be a number of markets that appear to meet the FCC criteria for blocking stations from making the switch next week.
For example, analog viewers in the Augusta, GA, market would lose two PBS stations, NBC, ABC and CBS if none of those stations are blocked from switching on February 17th by the FCC. The only over-the-air analog station remaining in Augusta would be Fox.
Other markets where analog viewers would face significant programming losses on February 17th should the FCC not intervene include:
• Bakersfield, CA, would lose all four of its over-the-air analog stations.
• Columbus-Tupelo, MS, would lose all five of its OTA analog stations.
• Dayton, OH would lose all of six of its OTA analog stations.
• Madison, WI, would lose all of its OTA analog network-affiliated stations.
• Mobile, AL-Pensacola, FL would lose all of its OTA analog network-affiliated stations.
• Sioux City, IO, would lose all of its OTA analog network-affiliated stations.
• South Bend-Elkhart, IN, would lost all of its OTA analog network-affiliated stations.
• Fort Meyers-Naples, FL, would lose all of its OTA analog stations except for Fox and PBS.
The situation with the government coupon program to help consumers purchase digital-to-analog converter boxes remains unclear. The coupon program ran out of money a few weeks ago and has been putting consumers on a waiting list. About $650 million to help replenish the coupon program is in the stimulus package moving through Congress.
