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Digital TV delay cost some TV channels $40,000/month

January 23rd, 2009, 3:46 pm · 9 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

Channel 40’s Trinity Broadcasting Network was way ahead of the digital TV  transition. The religious network has been broadcasting five digital channels for three years, while at the same time maintaining an analog broadcast. But if some lawmakers get their way and delay the Feb. 17 deadline to June 12, the Tustin-based channel will have to decide if it will pull the plug on analog viewers early.

“Honestly, we’ve been preparing for this for almost eight years and if people aren’t ready on Feb. 17, I don’t think four months is going to make much difference,” said Paul Crouch Jr., chief of staff with the Tustin channel. ”I think it’s going to confuse people even further.”

A bill to delay the end of analog TV is slated for a Senate vote next week. If passed, broadcasters will retain the right to end analog broadcasts on February 17. 

For years, TBN has been paying $30,000 to $40,000 each month on electricity bills to keep its analog transmitter running. A four-month delay would cost an extra $4.32 million because TBN has stations in 36 regions.

“The sooner we can turn off our analog, we will see a lot of savings,” Crouch said. 

Just think, that $4.32 million in electricity costs could buy 86,400 digital converter boxes at $50 a piece. Combine TBN’s expense with full-powered stations everywhere and millions of households everywhere could instead get a free converter box.

Readers have spoken and those who took my unscientific poll say they are ready to move to digital next month.

The proposed delay took on new life this year when the governement coupon program to help consumers buy converter boxes ran out of money. About 2 million U.S. households are now on the waiting list. Around that time, then President-elect Barack Obama voiced his support for a delay.

Lawmakers rushed to create the DTV Delay bill, which was amended Thursday after being rejected the prior week. It seeks to fix the coupon problem and postpone the deadline to June 12. A Senate vote is expected next week.

“The way I see it, right now we have a choice. We can do the DTV transition right or we can do it wrong,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., the lawmaker who authored the DTV Delay bill, in a statement.

“But the shameful truth is that we are not poised to do this transition right. We are only weeks away from doing it dreadfully wrong — and leaving consumers with the consequences. It is no secret that the outgoing administration grossly mismanaged the digital television transition. The coupon program that was designed to help consumers defray the cost of converter boxes to ensure the continued functioning of their analog television sets has a waiting list of over 2 million.”

The amended bill has Republican and Democratic support. In addition, it allows the FCC to award vacant airwaves to public safety officials and allows broadcasters, such as TBN, the right to make the transition before June 12.

Will a delay really happen? Colby May, a D.C. lawyer who represents about 50 stations including TBN in the matter, believes it will.

“It’s going to happen. That’s my view,” May said. “When Sen. Rockefeller worked out some of the issues (Thursday) so that we’ll go through a more staggered blink off and not necessarily the big cut off on Feb. 17, that made it clear. … And President Obama has pretty much already said he would sign it.”

As of December 2008, 9.5 percent of TV-watching households in Orange County and Los Angeles weren’t prepared, according to The Nielsen Co. the TV research company. Approximately 535,000 households in the region do not have a digital television, converter box or cable or satellite service.

More on the digital TV transition at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/dtv  

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 9 Comments

  • Ed Dart says:
    January 23, 2009 at 4:59 pm

    The fact is some people won’t get ready until they are forced to get ready. If one night they can’t see their TV shows. The next day they will go and get the box. If they can’t afford the box now, what makes you think they will be able to afford it in June?

  • syscom3 says:
    January 24, 2009 at 11:50 am

    The country has a certain segment of stupid people, who get what they deserve. Pull the plug on analog as planned and get done with it. That will motivate them to get off their butts and buy the converter box.

  • martince says:
    January 25, 2009 at 7:30 am

    Let’s get the dtv transition over with. This is not just TBN (we watch 2 of their 5 channels at times); it is also Daystar, and a lot a independents along with the major network stations. This is not the time to increase costs on broadcasters in the middle of an advertising downturn.

  • John S. says:
    January 25, 2009 at 9:48 am

    Bureaucrats make these laws without regards to the consequences. I work for a manufacturer of industrial control equipment. When DST was changed they acted like: “What’s the big deal you just wind your clock back earlier” They did not realize the impact on scheduling etc. software that had to be changed and tested. Everyone knew Feb was the month for turning off analog for a year and the prudent ones prepared for it . To wait until the last minute upsets everyone’s plans. Like the other posters, I agree anyone who didn’t buy a converter by now should be stuck. Maybe I will stock up on them and when there is a shortage I can resell for double and no coupon.

  • To all who enter, welcome says:
    January 25, 2009 at 11:03 am

    Seriously….. Paying for the digital box and antenna are cheaper compared to paying for cable. The problem is, Time Warner and all the cable companies would lose profit, big $$.
    Since the economy is getting worse day-by-day cable company profits are going to come to a close. Food, shelter, clothing and gas are more important than watching television.

  • T.O. Jason says:
    January 25, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    This posting is next to ridiculous.

    1. There are no stations that I know of that are volunteering to take the money they are “saving” to buy converter boxes or antennae for anyone. Yes, they theoretically “could” do so, but they aren’t. So, it’s pointless to mention it at all.

    2. Stations will have the *option* of continuing their analog broadcasts during the extended transition period. They don’t have to, so this optional delay will not cost them anything if they don’t want it to. If they aren’t concerned with peoples’ screens going black because they aren’t ready, then they can switch to all digital as originally planned.

    What’s not mentioned here is that many people with indoor antennae will not be able to receive the digital broadcasts even if they are currently receiving analog channels with no problems. All of the advertising, PSAs, etc. have made it sound as though all current antennae will continue to be fine.

  • T.O. Jason says:
    January 25, 2009 at 5:50 pm

    Just saw this: http://gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/dtv2009/ which covers the antenna issue somewhat.

  • jim says:
    January 26, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    I have some friends with rural locations in the Midwest that simply do not get digital equivalent reception anymore and probably won’t. There are still a lot of people who won’t get any over the air reception that will have to have get satellite (can’t feed the kids, like they will get a dish).

    I don’t think that the true cost of orphaning that part of the viewing public will be known till the cutover is finished and done with and you really can count them all.

    I don’t know that it is disenfranchisement to have no TV reception, since there are plenty of other sources of information to have an informed decision on political issues, but it is sad that there was no alternative proposed to cover this when the decision was made to go with the digital channels.

    keeping a few maybe at either the old 2-6 range, or a couple on the air in the 7-13 range, or even 1 or two in the 800mhz range would allow rural areas to be covered. And the best would probably be to keep say 11-13 alive and drop all other analog bands. Those stations would send all their power into rural locations, and away from populated centers, and their frequencies would still not interfere with most of the new gizmos that will use the vacated bandwidth.

  • Duane says:
    February 6, 2009 at 2:32 am

    I seriously don’t understand how we are all going to get digital TV without buying into some service. Right now we get it (plus telephone service) with our cable service. I am, admittedly, somewhat “tech disabled” and I don’t know how this can work without a monthly charge. Can someone explain, in layman terms, how digital works as opposed to the old, analog broadcast way.? .. And, please tell us why this is better for everyone. Also, will everyone be paying a monthly charge for this mandatory digital service, the same way we pay our cable company? Who is the company supplying digital to everyone? Sorry if I sound stupid. I’m an artist, not a scientist…right brained, not left. I must have a mental block or something, but I just don’t get it. Thanks for your patience!
    (Yeah. I’m a girl not a guy… with a guy’s name. Maybe that’s the problem.)