Broadcast TV, as We’ve Known it for Over 70 Years, Goes Dark in the US

Related subjects: I.T., J.E. Robertson, Legislation, Media, Press Freedom, Science & Technology, U.S. Economy, U.S. Law, U.S. Politics, U.S. news Comments (0)

12 June 2009 :: J.E. Robertson

The first broadcast electronic television signal was established in the UK in 1936. The first experimental black-and-white “mechanical” television service was established in the UK in 1926. Several countries, including Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands, had adopted sustained mechanical television services as early as 1932. The United States began selling television receivers in 1938. Today, 12 June 2009, all analog television signals across the US “go dark”.

The transition to 100% digital television signals has been mandated by way of federal legislation, and it has been reported as many as 1 in 8 people who relied on the standard analog broadcast service will be left without access to television as of today. Cable providers are persistently pushing their product to the new market opening up among those still using aerial antennae to receive their television signal, but a lower-cost converter-box option is available to keep the free broadcast service working in digital.

1,700 stations nationwide must make the switch to digital broadcast by midnight tonight, in keeping with federal law. Viewing broadcast “over-the-air” television will require either a TV-top digital converter box or a paid subscription to cable, fiber-optic or satellite TV services.

[ad#cafsen-intext]

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the “winners” in this switch to digital are local TV stations, emergency and first responders, mobile technology and advertisers. Local stations benefit, because the digital signal has more “room” to provide added services and multiple kinds of events.

Emergency and first-responder crews benefit because the switch frees up radio frequency, allowing for more transmissions over a broader spectrum, in case of emergency, hopefully preventing band over-crowding. Mobile phone broadcast services may be widely available by this summer, in part due to the switch, and advertisers are eager to use digital interactive systems to circumvent ad-skipping.

Experts estimate that 16.5 million households will “go off grid” promptly at midnight tonight, due to lack of preparation for the switch to all-digital broadcasting. The environment may also suffer a direct impact, as landfills are swamped with out-of-date television sets:

As homeowners give up on their old TV sets, landfills nationwide are bracing for what technology expert Karl Burkart of the Mother Nature Network calls “an analog inundation” –as many as 90 million discarded TV sets full of lead and mercury toxins that will end up in dumps.

Singles under the age of 35, and Hispanic and African-American households, have reportedly been the groups which have received the least information about how to make the switch effectively. To what degree those individuals are entitled to some sort of remedy for the sudden shut-down of the service they have enjoyed until now has not yet been decided.

According to Mercury News:

Some 250 FCC staffers are working with the public at events and digital television (DTV) clinics nationwide, while FCC commissioners will be traveling the country for local DTV events and making television and radio appearances in target markets.

The FCC says there will be in-home assistance for over 200,000 homes through independent contractors, with additional in-home assistance provided by AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps members and firefighters in cooperation with the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

Media regulation is always a sensitive area in the United States, where the First Amendment to the United States Constitution establishes that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” Laws requiring specific behavior or methodology from media, on a national or local scale, are always controversial, and often fail to penetrate the consciousness of the public, which presumes that no such constraints exist.

The deadline for making the full switch to digital signal was delayed, officially, by for months, already once this year, due to lack of preparedness and the complications related to lack of adequate information among the viewing public. Ads have been running for well over a year, but many still express lack of understanding of the underlying issue, the reasons for the switch or what steps they may need to take.