It’s been expected for a while that a city might serve as a test case for the coming Digital Television Transition (scheduled for Feb. 17 next year). It’s now been announced that Wilmington, NC will be that test market.

From this morning’s L.A. Times:

The Federal Communications Commission plans to announce today that broadcasters in the coastal city of about 96,000 — the nation’s 135th-largest media market — will turn off their analog signals permanently on Sept. 8. That is about five months before the government-mandated switch-over in the rest of the country Feb. 18.

“We think it’s going to be a good thing for the community and it will pave the way for the rest of the country,” said Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo.

FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps had proposed a test market so officials could work out technical glitches and outreach problems with the digital transition, which will render older TVs that use antennas useless unless they’re outfitted with special signal converter boxes.

“It’s just nonsensical to think you can go into a transition like this and pull the lever one time for the entire country and not expect to have real consumer confusion,” Copps said Wednesday. “Even Broadway plays open on the road and you get the kinks out.”

The FCC confirmed the announcement today.

We issued a statement this afternoon from our President & CEO Kyle McSlarrow:

NCTA has previously indicated our support for the concept of a test market, and the cable industry has been working closely with broadcasters and other stakeholders to ensure that the February 2009 transition is seamless for television viewers. We applaud Commissioner Copps for proposing the concept of a market trial, and we look forward to working closely with the FCC so that local cable operators are able to help make the Wilmington test pilot – and the full February 2009 broadcast transition – a good experience for consumers.

Tags: digital TV, DTV Transition, FCC, North Carolina, Wilmington

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Digital Transition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.