Transition in Trouble: Action Needed to Ensure a Successful Digital Television Transition Posted by Bob at 07/07/08 03:50 PM

The good folks at the the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights are out with a report that should be required reading for any government official involved -- or who should be involved -- in the looming transition to digital television next February.

Titled "Transition in Trouble: Action Needed to Ensure a Successful Digital Television Transition," the report lays out the problems and challenges of the upcoming transition and what can still be done to make it go smoother.

By law on February 17, 2009, most television stations must stop sending analog over-the-air signals. This will change the way Americans watch television – especially those most reliant on free over-the-air television, many of whom are low-income Americans, seniors, people with disabilities, communities of color, and people who speak languages other than English.

The report details specific challenges faced by these communities, such as difficulties for seniors and people with disabilities in accessing captioning and the loss of community (low-power) broadcast television stations that provide the news and information on which communities of color and non-English speaking populations rely.

"We need to reach deep into communities who rely on over the air broadcasting to find out if they are prepared for the transition, and we need to make sure all Americans get the message about the DTV transition from messengers they trust in a language they can understand," said LCCR vice president for strategic initiatives Mark Lloyd. "Then we need to follow up to make sure they get the assistance they need to continue to have access to important news and emergency broadcasts."

comments (3)

1 Posted by Larry Legg at 07/24/08 05:02 PM

With the U.S. economy in such a sad condition, should we be forcing people to spend money that could be saved and thus strengthen the nation?

2 Posted by Linda at 08/03/08 08:24 AM

I'm going to buy another TV or go back to cable. I really can't afford either of these options. I got two convertor boxs and they both are terrible. I constantly have to adjust antenna evertime I change a channel. It is driving me crazy. I thought this was supposed to be better, it's not. Not everyone in this country has money to throw around, that's why I cancelled my cable I couldn't aford it.

3 Posted by Jason at 08/08/08 09:10 PM

Its sad how the digital transition has been propped up by propaganda. All the commercials say that "the digital signal is a better way to broadcast than analog signals". Well there really is no "better" way. Each way has its plus and minus. Unfortunately for my area, the digital signal is a big minus, as I can't get half the stations on digital that I can on analog, and every time we have a storm, we lose all the digital signals. How will I be able to get the National Weather service warnings once all my analog stations are gone? I for one feel that this transition is more about making the govt money with the bandwidth that they can resell. This transition needs to die.