News Service from House Harris

US: Final signoff for US analog TV service

NEW YORK, June 12 AP - Television stations across the US have started cutting their analogue signals, marking the final sign-off for a 60-year-old technology and likely stranding more than 1 million unprepared homes without TV service.

The Federal Communications Commission put 4,000 operators on standby for calls from confused viewers, and set up demonstration centres in several cities. Volunteer groups and local government agencies were helping elderly people set up digital converter boxes that keep older TVs functioning. Any set hooked up to cable or a satellite dish is unaffected.

"When you're alone like me, that's my partner," Patricia Bruchalski, 82, said about her TV on Friday.

Bruchalski, a pianist and former opera singer in Brooklyn Park, Maryland, got assistance on Thursday from Anne Arundel County's Department of Aging and Disabilities and a community organisation called Partners in Care. After her converter box was installed, Bruchalski marvelled that digital broadcasts seemed clearer and gave her more channels - about 15 instead of the three she was used to.

"You're going to be up all night watching TV now," volunteer installer Rick Ebling told her.

About 15 per cent of US households do not have satellite or cable, and they tend to be poorer. Nielsen Co. said minority households were less likely to be prepared for Friday's analogue shutdown, as were households consisting of people younger than 35.

A survey sponsored by broadcasters showed that Americans are well aware of the switch, thanks to two years of advertising about it. But many people simply procrastinated.

"We know some viewers will wait until the very last minute, or even after June 12, until they take action," said Paul Karpowicz, second vice-chair of the television board of the National Association of Broadcasters.

Fox affiliate WUPW in Toledo, Ohio, cut its signal at 8am on Friday, making it one of the first stations to go. By 10.15am, the station's four-person phone bank had received 40 calls, said chief engineer Steve Pietras.

Many callers wanted help connecting their converter boxes, Pietras said. They had put off hooking them up until Friday because they thought that was the day digital broadcasting started. Like most stations, WUPW has been broadcasting digitally for years, alongside analogue.

Another cause of confusion was that many stations were moving to new frequencies on Friday. That meant that even digital TV sets and older sets hooked up to converter boxes needed to be set to "re-scan" the airwaves.

Some people might also need new antennas, because digital signals travel differently from analogue ones. While a weakly received analogue channel might be viewable through some static, channels broadcast in the digital language of ones and zeros are generally all or nothing: If they don't come in perfectly, they are blank or they show a stuttering picture that breaks apart into blocks of colour.

The shutdown of analogue channels opens part of the airwaves for modern applications like wireless broadband and TV services for mobile phones. The government reaped $US19.6 billion ($A24 billion) last year by selling some of the freed-up frequencies, with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless the biggest buyers.

The shutdown was originally scheduled for February 17, but the government's fund for $US40 ($A49) converter box coupons ran out of money in early January, prompting the incoming Obama administration to push for a delay. The converter box program got additional funding in the national stimulus package.

Research firm SmithGeiger said on Thursday about 2.2 million households were still unprepared last week. Sponsored by the broadcasters' association, it surveyed 948 households that relied on antennas and found that one in eight did not have a digital TV or digital converter box.

Nielsen Company, which measures TV ratings from a wide panel of households, put the number of unready homes at 2.8 million, or 2.5 per cent of the total television market, as of Sunday, June 7. In February, the number was 5.8 million.

The Commerce Department reported a rush of latecomers to the coupon program: It received 319,990 requests on Thursday, nearly four times the daily average for the past month. In all, the government has mailed coupons for almost 60 million converter boxes.

Nearly half of the nation's 1,760 full-power TV stations had cut their analogue signals even before Friday, mostly in less populated areas. Stations ending the broadcasts on Friday were doing so throughout the day, with many waiting until the evening.

Even after Friday, low-power analogue stations and rural relay stations known as "translators" will still be available in some areas.

The switch comes as many stations are struggling financially because of a drop in advertising, and 21 stations will simply go off the air after cutting their analogue signals. Most of these are owned by Equity Media Holdings, which is under bankruptcy protection.