As you’ve probably read, the Federal Communications Commission chose the Wilmington, NC market as the first test case for the Digital Television transition (Here’s the story from the local paper, the Star-News). The switch was flipped at noon on Monday - a literal giant switch handled by Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Several of my colleagues were down for the event and one captured this video.

In that video, there were four TV sets displayed, but you can only see the two on the right. Of those two, the one on the left is hooked up to a digital TV converter box and is receiving the digital signal. The one of the right is receiving the analog signal. Once the switch is thrown, the screen first goes black and then shows a message telling viewers that they need to do something to receive the digital signal.

And here’s a  more detailed report from NCTA’s Rob Stoddard:

By all measures, the Wilmington trial was, technically, a success. The full-power commercial broadcast stations in the market were successful in pulling down at 12:00 noon Eastern Time all of the network, syndicated, and local programming they were broadcasting in analog – leaving viewers entirely dependent upon those broadcasters’ digital signals. Cable operators in the market, and presumably the satellite providers that also serve viewers there, were successful in accommodating the digital-only scenario, as well as in processing the hundreds of requests for new service or service upgrades that came in the days preceding and during the cut-over.

All major stakeholders – broadcasters, cable operators, and government officials at the national, state and local level – also appear to have been successful in collaborating on solutions that would best serve consumers. That collaboration left a halo of good feelings, in that the various groups, which more frequently are competitive and adversarial, were almost surprised to discover that they could work closely together within tight time constraints to resolve all of the issues implicit in the cut-over.

What we’ve actually learned from the trial, so far at least, is more an affirmation than new knowledge:

People will (and do) wait until the last possible moment. According to published reports, cable operators reported a flurry of consumer calls; supplies of pertinent consumer electronic devices (converter boxes, antennas, etc.) were stretched; and local officials reported a run on applications for government discount coupons, meaning that some consumers would be waiting to receive coupons well after the cut-over date – all in the hours leading up to the actual cut-over. And this in a market in which NAB reported 97 percent awareness in the week prior to the cut-over.

The “digital cliff” effect does take a toll. Published reports also say that local TV stations received, collectively, hundreds of calls right after the cut-over, many from people who had obtained and properly installed the government-certified digital-to-analog converter boxes for their over-the-air analog TV sets, but who for a variety of reasons could no longer see some or all local TV signals. We can assume that some people needed new or better antennas; others had failed to program their new boxes by scanning for available digital channels; still others just aren’t in a good place to receive local digital TV signals.

And, many people needed help from others to get over-the-air converter boxes hooked up and working properly. The City of Wilmington was persuaded to take action less than a week prior to the cut-over, to make firefighters and emergency responders available upon request, to help hook up a box, re-position an antenna, or provide other assistance to citizens who needed it.

It remains to be seen how these learnings can be applied to the nationwide cut-over that will occur February 17. However, the trial was successful in identifying the kinds of issues that tangibly could be addressed by all communities and stakeholders in the weeks ahead.

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

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 4:49 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.