Today DTC brings you the third and final part of the DTV Transition series:
Monday September 8, 2008 – Stewart Wolpin
If you want a clue as to how the digital transition could go next February, tune into Wilmington, NC this week.
Earlier this year, Wilmington's local TV stations volunteered to be the analog TV cutoff guinea pigs. On September 8, the analog turnoff becomes real and permanent in Wilmington.
Whatever the early transition brings in Wilmington, however, it will not be representative of what will happen in the rest of the country five months from now due to the fact that every area will bring its own unique conditions and challenges.
For one thing, only an estimated seven percent of Wilmington's population – around 10,000-15,000 homes – gets its TV signals exclusively over-the-air (OTA), although there is likely a good number of pay TV households that use an OTA TV set, as well. For another, Wilmington's local TV stations, the FCC and the NAB have all been running a publicity full-court press – shopping mall kiosks, and outreach through churches, local service clubs, senior citizen centers, and TV PSAs – to make sure every resident is prepared for the shut off.
Because Wilmington’s terrain is flat, the level of reception success residents may experience won’t necessarily be repeated in communities with hilly terrain. Hilly, mountainous and wooded areas will likely present more barriers for residents receiving all TV stations available in the area.
It’s been well documented that reception gaps will likely exist. Earlier this year the FCC initiated field tests to determine where these reception gaps may exist. The NBC affiliate in Wilmington, for instance, had to change its transmission site to a taller tower southwest of the city to ensure optimal digital coverage.
In an effort to further ease the shock of transition, the FCC has targeted 80 markets with more than 100,000 OTA households for the kind of saturated marketing effort used in Wilmington to discover and repair potential consumer knowledge and digital reception gaps before the February turnoff.
Whether or not the combined efforts of all concerned to make sure no one loses their TV signal on February 18 is successful is, of course, the $64,000 question.
