North Carolina is first to go all digital TV
WASHINGTON (AP) - May 8, 2008 The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday formally
announced that the North Carolina TV market on would be the first
to switch from analog signals to an all-digital format. It said
five local stations will begin broadcasting only digital signals
beginning at 12 p.m. on Sept. 8 - five months ahead of the
much-advertised Feb. 17 nationwide flip.
"This experience will help us to spot issues that we need to
address elsewhere in the country before next February," FCC
Chairman Kevin Martin said in a release Thursday.
The agency said Wilmington is one of "only a limited number of
potential test markets," but did not say how many others or if
they would also make the early switch.
Wilmington, which volunteered for the switch, was one of eight
communities with technology in place to go all digital, an agency
spokesman said.
Wilmington is the 135th ranked TV market in the nation, said
Jason Oxman, a spokesman for the Consumer Electronics Association,
a trade group for electronics manufacturers and retailers.
About 93 percent of Wilmington's households subscribe to cable
or satellite TV, while only 7 percent - or about 12,600 households
- still watch over-the-air programming, he said.
While about half of the nation's households own a digital set,
it's unclear how many of those 12,600 over-the-air households in
Wilmington do. But Oxman said getting the word out will be easy to
do in a small market.
All full-power broadcast television stations on Feb. 18 will
stop transmitting an analog signal. Viewers with cable or satellite
television will not be affected, but over-the-air viewers will need
a converter box, which the government is helping subsidize.
Michael Copps, one of the FCC's five commissioners, two months
ago first suggested the idea of switching a number of small markets
before the nationwide transition.
"Broadway shows open on the road to work out the kinks before
opening night," he wrote in a letter then to Martin. "The DTV
transition deserves no less."
He had noted that other nations, notably the United Kingdom,
have made the digital TV shift in stages.
Lawmakers have expressed concerns that TV viewers with sets that
get over-the-air broadcasts may be left with a blank picture once
the nationwide switch takes place.
TV broadcasters and others have launched an aggressive
advertising campaign to educate viewers about the impending
transition and their options, which include getting government
coupons to help pay for converter boxes.
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On the Net:
http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html