Spring Break
Analog or Digital: What's the Verdict?
Dean Galaro
Issue date: 2/4/09 Section: Opinion
All the obnoxious digital transition commercials over the past few months might become bunk if Congress can agree on a date to switch to a mandated all-digital broadcast for television broadcasters. The debate has been raging ever since Obama took office and called for a delay of the previously set February 17th date to June 12th, opening a partisan rift in the House where-as of the writing of this article-Republicans refuse to pass the transitional bill which has already been passed by the Senate. The public and lobby pressure to push this initiative back will most likely force the House into agreement and the bill should pass soon. Disregarding all of the D.C. politics that have snuck their way into this fiasco, the issue is really quite simple: it's now or never.
While not an obvious question for most, some might be wondering what Congress has to do with broadcasting companies wanting to drop their antiquated analog signals in favor of adopting the modern digital television signal. Broadcasts do come from private companies to individuals who pay for the service, but the airwaves they travel across are owned by the government. This means television signals fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC, which monitors and controls the invisible broadcast spectrum, and according to Congress this shutting down of analog broadcasts will free up room in the radio spectrum for use with emergency services and the like whose communications are currently cramped. Most of the analog spectrum that will be freed up has already been sold for a government profit of $19 billion.
So, since television broadcasting falls under federal jurisdiction, the government oversees the dropping of analog television and has, at the very least, bungled it up. The ongoing debate surrounding the delay of the transition is for two reasons: the fact that there are still millions of people who are unprepared for the switch (i.e. they have yet to either buy a converter box or a digital television subscription), and the fact that there is no money left to provide coupons for the aforementioned converter boxes. The $1.5 billion coupon project has been overrun by the "unforeseen" recession which created higher-than-expected demand, leaving millions of people without coupons to purchase their own converter box.
While not an obvious question for most, some might be wondering what Congress has to do with broadcasting companies wanting to drop their antiquated analog signals in favor of adopting the modern digital television signal. Broadcasts do come from private companies to individuals who pay for the service, but the airwaves they travel across are owned by the government. This means television signals fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC, which monitors and controls the invisible broadcast spectrum, and according to Congress this shutting down of analog broadcasts will free up room in the radio spectrum for use with emergency services and the like whose communications are currently cramped. Most of the analog spectrum that will be freed up has already been sold for a government profit of $19 billion.
So, since television broadcasting falls under federal jurisdiction, the government oversees the dropping of analog television and has, at the very least, bungled it up. The ongoing debate surrounding the delay of the transition is for two reasons: the fact that there are still millions of people who are unprepared for the switch (i.e. they have yet to either buy a converter box or a digital television subscription), and the fact that there is no money left to provide coupons for the aforementioned converter boxes. The $1.5 billion coupon project has been overrun by the "unforeseen" recession which created higher-than-expected demand, leaving millions of people without coupons to purchase their own converter box.
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