The digital television transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of terrestrial television programming. It was originally set for between December 31, 2006, and January 1, 2007, but was delayed several times due to multiple government acts being enforced on broadcasting companies. Full-power analog broadcasting ceased in most of the country on June 12, 2009; however, various aspects of analog television were continued up until 2022.
History The initial plans for the transition in 2006 were stipulated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. However, this was put off by the Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005, under which full-power broadcasting of analog television in the United States was set to have ceased after February 17, 2009. This was further delayed to June 12, 2009, after the passage of the DTV Delay Act on February 4, 2009. The delay to June 12 was to assist households on a waiting list for coupons for digital converter boxes, funding for which was provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
While full-power broadcasting ceased on June 12, 2009, 120 full-power stations would maintain a "nightlight" service (under SAFER Act provisions) usually displaying a program about the DTV transition, ending no later than July 12, 2009. Low-power broadcasting would continue for some time. Initially scheduled to shut down on September 1, 2015, the conversion date was delayed to July 13, 2021, before finally being completed on January 10, 2022, due to several factors affecting Alaska's conversion to digital television. An attempt was made in 2007 to extend analog services by another five years in areas within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the Mexican border, but it was unsuccessful.Bill S.2507 (2007), "DTV Border Fix Act of 2007" from OpenCongress.org
In preparation for the end of analog services, all new television devices that receive signals over-the-air, including pocket-sized portable televisions, personal computer video capture card tuners, and DVD recorders, had been required to include digital ATSC tuners since March 1, 2007.
Following the analog switch-off, the FCC reallocated channels 52 through 69 (the 700MHz band) for other communications traffic, completing the reallocation of broadcast channels 52–69 that began in the late 1990s. These channels were auctioned off in early 2008, with the winning bidders taking possession of them in June 2009. Four channels from this portion of the broadcast spectrum (60, 61, 68, and 69) were held for reallocation to public safety communications (such as police, fire, and emergency rescue). Some of the remaining freed up frequencies were used for advanced commercial wireless services for consumers, such as Qualcomm's planned use of former UHF channel 55 for its MediaFLO service.
According to David Rehr, then president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, this transition represented "the most significant advancement of television technology since color TV was introduced." The then-new FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said on June 30, 2009, that the transition had "succeeded far beyond expectations", but his predecessor Michael Copps said that the transition led to a "significant impact on consumers" and that it was "not a closed book".
Transition testing Wilmington, North Carolina test market As part of a test by the FCC to iron out transition and reception concerns before the nationwide shutoff, all of the major commercial network stations in the Wilmington, North Carolina market ceased transmission of their analog signals on September 8, 2008, making it the first market in the nation to go digital-only. Wilmington was chosen as the test city in part because the area's digital channel positions would remain unchanged after the transition. Wilmington was also appropriate because it had no hills to cause reception problems and all of the stations would have UHF channels.
The low-power CBS affiliate WILM-LD signed on its new digital signal in time for the transition. The test excluded UNC-TV/PBS station WUNJ, which kept their analog signal on, as they were the official conduit of emergency information in the area.
Viewers were notified of the change by months of public service announcements, town hall meetings, and local news coverage. Only 7% of viewers were affected by the loss of analog broadcasts, the remainder subscribing to cable or satellite services, but this produced 1,800 calls to the FCC for assistance. Officials were concerned by the implications of this for larger markets or those where reliance on over-the-air broadcasts exceeds 30%.
While many calls from viewers were straightforward questions about the installation of antennas and converters, or the need to scan for channels before being able to watch digital television, hundreds more were from viewers who had installed converters and UHF antennas correctly but had still lost existing channels. Most affected were full-power broadcasters which had been on low-VHF channels. WECT (NBC 6 Wilmington), a signal which in its analog form reached the edge of Myrtle Beach, could no longer be received by many who had watched the station for years—a victim of a move to UHF 44 at a different transmitter site. WECT's coverage area had been substantially reduced; for many who were on the fringes of the analog NBC 6 signal, WECT was no longer accessible. However, weeks before, new digital-only WMBF-TV, a new NBC affiliate, came to the air to serve Myrtle Beach with a city-grade signal; like WECT, WMBF was owned by Raycom Media at the time.
On November 7, 2008, the FCC issued an order allowing distributed transmission systems (DTS) to be constructed by stations that otherwise cannot cover their original analog footprint with their new digital channels and facilities. While broadcasters may now apply for DTS facilities, this decision was made far too late to allow the extra transmitter sites to be constructed and operational before the original February 17, 2009, analog shutoff.
Legislation On February 8, 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 bill to end analog television by February 17, 2009.
Impact Digital TV encoding allows stations to offer higher definition video and better sound quality than analog, as well as allowing the option of programming multiple digital subchannels (multicasting). However, it provides these advantages at the cost of a severe limitation of broadcast range.
Digital signals do not have "grade B" signal areas, and are either "in perfectly" or "not in at all". Further, since most stations have preferred to use UHF rather than older VHF channel allocations, their actual broadcast range is far less than it was previously. Viewers in major metropolitan areas will likely not notice problems; however, rural TV users have generally had most or all of the stations they previously received with acceptable but not "perfect" signals fall over the digital cliff (where analog signals slowly degrade over long distances rather than digital suddenly cutting off when out of range).
Lastly, many low-power broadcasters have been temporarily permitted to transmit in analog for several years.What is Digital Television? for the public, by DTV Answers. Accessed May 11, 2007.
Consumer awareness Although the United Kingdom spent the equivalent of more than a billion dollars educating about 60 million people, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration had received $5 million a year before the original transition date of February 17, 2009, and the FCC had received $2.5 million and was scheduled to receive $20 million more later in the year, for 300 million people, requiring voluntary education campaigns. It was also noted that low-income, elderly, disabled, inner city, immigrants, and rural Americans were targeted the most, because these groups mainly watched analog antenna TV more than any other groups.Digital Television Transition: Implementation of the Converter Box Subsidy Program Is Under Way, but Preparedness to Manage an Increase in Subsidy Demand Is Unclear United States Government Accountability Office September 16, 2008
While broadcasters were forced by Federal Communications Commission regulations to devote the equivalent of more than a billion dollars' worth of airtime to public service announcements regarding the digital transition, the amount of information conveyed in these short advertisements was by necessity limited. Both the on-air announcements and government-funded telephone hotlines receiving viewer inquiries directed consumers to Internet sites to seek information,Teletech DTV hotline less than helpful, former employee says, Rachel Abell, KVIA-TV ABC 7 El Paso, Texas, February 2009 at a time when most affected were not familiar with the Internet.
Obsolete equipment After the switch, consumers' old analog televisions, VCRs, DVRs, and other devices which lacked a digital tuner no longer received over-the-air television. Though previously recorded content can still be replayed, new content cannot be accessed. The one, direct solution to the problem was to buy an external tuner (called a converter box) that receives DTV signals directly and converts them to analog for the television, VCR, or other analog device. Another solution was the use of a cable TV or satellite TV service, as these providers handled the necessary conversion within their respective systems and could provide the analog signal these older analog devices required.
Users of analog VCRs, DVRs, or other recording devices which lacked a digital tuner had the unique problem of no longer being able to record programs across multiple channels. In order to record multiple DTV channels, the viewer had to use an external tuner box and set the device to record the output from that box, typically L-1 for the line input. Some manufacturers sold external converter boxes or tuners that automatically changed channels at preset times. The analog VCR or DVR may record at preset times, but will continue recording the L-1 line input, which would be the same channel unless the channel is manually changed.
Alternatively, the user may purchase a new TV, DVR, or DVD recorder with a built-in digital tuner. However, these newer technologies have their own drawbacks, such as being limited to only 1–2 hours with high-quality XP mode (DVD-R).
Loss of service
A major concern is that the broadcast technology used for ATSC signals called 8VSB has problems receiving signals inside buildings and in urban areas, largely due to multipath reception issues which cause ghosting and fading on analog images, but can also lead to intermittent signal or no reception at all on ATSC programs. DTV broadcasts exhibit a digital cliff effect, by which viewers will receive either a perfect signal or no signal at all with little or no middle ground. Digital transmissions do contain additional data bits to provide error correction for a finite number of bit errors; once signal quality degrades beyond that point, recovery of the original digital signal becomes impossible, and the image on the screen freezes, or blinks back and forth to and from a completely black image.