Dear Dr. FCC: I am hearing alarming reports that at some point in the next 500 days or so a whole bunch of TV sets are going to go dark because of the "DTV transition." I love my TV set so much. Why would anyone want to do this to us?

Clarence

Dear Clarence:

Please don't worry. No one wants to take your television set away from you, least of all the Bush administration. Here are the facts.

The United States government has set February 17th, 2009 as the last day that television stations may broadcast their signal using the analog method. Analog systems use radio frequencies to transmit sound and pictures. Digital systems transmit TV signals, well, via digits, complex packets of zeros and ones that get reassembled into video and audio when they reach your television set.

Everybody gets something from digital or "DTV" broadcasting. You'll get better images and sound, with much less interference. Plus DTV transmission will allow TV license holders to broadcast several streams from one signal, a technique called "multicasting." This means that you will have even more channels to choose from, depending on the extent to which cable and satellite companies pick them all up, still a matter of dispute.

In addition, the abandonment of all these analog signals will allow the Federal government to auction off a huge swath of channel space, or spectrum, earning the United States Treasury billions of dollars.

The Federal Communications Commission has ruled that, starting on March 1, 2007, all newly manufactured boob tubes have to come equipped with digital tuners. Retailers can still sell analog only equipment, but they've got to include the following warning around the said gear: "This television receiver has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17th, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the Nation's transition to digital broadcasting. . . . "

Already about 1,600 TV stations broadcast both analog and digital signals. The problem is that millions of Americans, perhaps as many as 21 million, still rely on analog television only. That is, they don't have a digital tuner, or a cable or satellite set top box, which usually picks up a digital signal and translates it into something that their analog TV can receive. They just watch TV using a plain old rabbit ears antenna analog machine.

That means that on midnight, February 17th, 2009, their TV set will become a useless piece of furniture, unless the owner of that receiver acts sooner. That means that somebody has to tell them to act, and how to act. The problem is that a lot of those owners are the least reachable people in our society: the poor, the very elderly, folks in remote rural areas, and people with disabilities. Paradoxically, while many of these individuals depend on television for their primary connection to the outside world, they're going to be the hardest people to get retooled for the digital transition. Among other problems, many of them don't have the money to buy a fancy new digital TV set.

To address the money issue, the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has started a Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program. Beginning on January 1st, 2008, all Americans will be eligible to receive two $40 coupons good towards purchase of a set top box that, plugged into your grandmother's old TV, will convert that digital signal to analog and keep the telly running.

But the challenge will be to a) make grandma aware of the problem, and b) make her, or someone who can help her, aware of the solution. To deal with these public education tasks, the government has budgeted a sum that many critics regard as woefully inadequate, about $5 million for the NTIA, and another $2 million for the FCC. The British, in contrast, have allocated almost $400 million for the job.

NTIA officials defend the relatively low sum earmarked for this task by assuring the public that the private sector—broadcasters, TV manufactures, and retail TV distributors—will take on the burden of educational work. Yesterday Dr. FCC attended an FCC Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting, at which a National Association of Broadcasters official assured the group that this was a top priority for broadcasters, a matter of self-interest, even calling the DTV transition "television's Y2K."

But I am not sure that it will be, given that those 21 million analog TV owners are probably some of the nation's least affluent consumers. In addition, the government does not seem to be in any great rush to get those set top converter boxes to market. At yesterday's CAC meeting an NTIA official acknowledged that the FCC still had not tested them yet: four and a half months before they're due to ship to retail stores.

In addition, the FCC still does not yet know how they will run their educational program. The Commission will soon launch a 45 day proceeding, asking the public for input on educating Americans about the DTV transition. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes to require broadcasters to air Public Service Announcements (PSAs) on their channels. "What should these announcements include, and when and how often should they run?" the Notice asks. "Should we impose similar requirements on all television broadcast licensees or should there be distinctions made among licensees? Should the Commission produce an announcement or group of announcements to be used by all broadcasters . . . ?" Ten more queries follow these two in the Notice's text.

These are all very worthy questions, but if the proceeding starts tomorrow, it means that the FCC won't have the statutory input necessary to make decisions on these complex problems until late September and might not issue an Order on the matter until a month before those set top boxes hit the market. This would give the broadcast industry little time to comply with the FCC's requirements by Coupon Day—January 1st, 2008—not to mention the FCC itself if the Order orders the agency to produce PSAs on the matter.

And so the DTV transition promises to be a bit of a Wild Ride for Mr. and Mrs. Toad, not to mention the rest of us. Keep checking with Dr. FCC and llfcc.net for more updates on this issue.

One thing is for sure, whatever happens after February 17th, 2009, the Last Day of Analog Broadcasting, President George W. ("You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie") Bush, won't have to answer for it. At least there's that.