Newsroom: TV & Radio

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, DC— There is major confusion among consumers about the transition to digital television (DTV) set to occur in 2009, according to testimony by Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine before the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.

A survey recently released from Consumer Reports National Research Center found seventy-four percent of respondents were aware of the upcoming transition, but had serious misconceptions of its impact. The survey also found over one-third (36%) of Americans living in households with TVs are entirely unaware of the government-mandated transition to digital broadcasting.

"Awareness is good, but it's accurate information that really matters for consumers," said Chris Murray, Senior Counsel for Consumers Union. "It would be better if more consumers knew in practical terms what steps they could take to lower their costs during the switchover to digital," said Murray.

On February 17, 2009, television broadcasters will end "analog" broadcasts and only send television signals in a "digital" format.  The DTV transition will affect millions of consumers who use analog television sets to view free over-the-air programming.  These analog televisions will either need to be connected to a digital converter box, attached to cable or satellite service, or replaced with a digital.  

"The digital television transition creates unique vulnerabilities for consumers and therefore unique opportunities for businesses to mislead them. Along with the technical complexities of the transition are strong incentives by a variety of market players to ‘digital upsell' to consumers," said Murray.

According to Murray's testimony, cable companies have an incentive to encourage non-subscribers to purchase their service, and to upsell current subscribers to digital cable. Retailers and manufacturers have an incentive to sell high-end HDTVs rather than more affordable, smaller-screen digital sets. And they have little incentive to inform consumers that their analog sets will continue to receive digital broadcasts as long as they have a converter box.

"The combination of low consumer awareness, technological complexity, and financial incentives to upsell creates a situation ripe for confusion. For vulnerable populations—such as the elderly or low-income households—the potential for being misled, intentionally or unintentionally, is significant," added Murray.

According to the Consumer Reports survey, 99 percent of adults live in a household with at least one television, and many have two or more, and 15 percent of Americans live in households that rely exclusively on over-the-air programming.  If these consumers do not take some action to convert to a digital signal before February 2009, over three-quarters (78%) will have no televisions capable of receiving over-the-air broadcasting.  That is 11 percent of Americans adults, or approximately 23 million people, who would be unable to watch TV.

"On February 17, 2009, the U.S. is going to make the jump to digital. At that time, either millions of Americans will have been educated about exactly what they need to do to minimize transition hiccups, or millions of Americans will wake up that morning and find their TVs don't work anymore," Murray testified.

"The challenge before us is to get meaningful, accurate information into the hands of all consumers in America without inducing information overload," added Murray.

To find unbiased information on digital options, consumers should visit www.hearusnow.org/tvradio/12 and www.consumerreports.org/dtv.

Contact: Jennifer Fuson, 202-462-6262