In a statement last Thursday, acting FCC Commissioner Michael Copps seemed happy about how the first wave of the US DTV transition went. He said “Thanks to the movement of the deadline, we did not have anything like the extent of disruption we would have experienced had every station in the country gone completely digital. on Tuesday.”
He called on everyone involved to make the remaining stations’ transition even smoother, noting that “Most stations and most consumers still have the transition ahead of them.” His remarks, were intended primarily for “cable and other companies, the many consumer organizations, and an absolutely inspired group of civil servants who all stepped up to the plate.”
He failed to mention that the majority of consumer complaints related to areas where the FCC seems to have dropped the ball. The agency’s call centers fielded more than 70,000 calls on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of last week. Most of them were about either the FCC-run voucher program or reception problems.
Result for: fcc
The DTV Delay Act, which passed both the US Senate and House of Representatives recently, was supposed to ensure consumers who won’t be prepared for the DTV transition on the original February 17 date would still be able to watch TV. But today when the FCC released the list of broadcasters who are hoping to turn off their analog signals by that date anyway that’s not how it looked.
According to the FCC announcement 190 stations were already cleared to go all digital prior to the original deadline. Nearly 500 more have informed the FCC they still plan to keep the original schedule and make the transition on February 17. In total 681 stations, more than a third of all full power broadcasters in the US, intend to stick with their original plans.
There’s no guarantee all these stations will be allowed to go through with the transition early. The rule changes that go along with the new transition date allow the FCC to force stations to wait until June 12 if commissioners feel it would be “contrary to the public interest” for them to switch over early.
It seems likely the FCC won’t allow that many stations to switch this month. That raises the question of whether there may be lawsuits by broadcasters who are stuck with additional expenses stemming directly from the Federal Government’s sudden change of plans.
Result for: fcc
Just in case there wasn’t enough chaos surrounding the US DTV transition, an executive from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) gave the FCC some more bad news last Thursday. Speaking at an open meeting of FCC commissioners on the DTV transition Michael Petricone, CEA’s Senior Vice President for Governmental Affairs, said there may soon be a shortage of converter boxes.
The problem, Petricone explained, is the consumer electronics industry’s inability to accurately predict demand for the boxes, most of which will be purchased with the assistance of government vouchers. Once the transition is complete there will be little or no market for them, which is why most manufacturers stopped production in early January in anticipation of a February 17 switchover.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen problems with the DTV converter supply chain. With some notable exceptions, such as Best Buy and Radio Shack, many retailers were unable to meet consumer demand last summer. During the last few months of 2008 retailer stock seemed to catch up to demand.
Ironically the good news for consumers in need of DTV converters is the bad news for the economy. Due to decreased demand for consumer electronics many assembly lines which would normally have been re-tooled to make other products have simply been shut down instead. This means it should be possible to get additional units on store shelves in half the normal time.
