http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-70A1.pdf Interesting read. The FCC is asking for comment on the last minute transition details, such as how stations with DTT assignments that won't be their final DTT channel should go about migrating to their final channel. Also asks about allowing stations to end analog service ahead of schedule, reduce analog power, and so on. Para. 41: "We believe, however, that Congress' adoption of the hard deadline of February 17, 2009, now weighs in favor of an increasing tolerance for the loss of analog service as we near the switchover date and where it will facilitate the transition." Para. 46: "If it is necessary for stations to reduce analog service before the transition to be sure all viewers have digital service on and after the transition date, we will consider such requests." Para. 52: "We seek comment on whether and, if so, under what circumstances we should accept new requests by stations to return their pre-transition DTV channel before the end of the transition and 'flash cut' from their analog channel to their post-transition channel (which must be different from their pre-transition DTV channel)." Also, they quote OTA TV usage in the US from NAB figures from 2006. We may have seen these already from the NAB. Para. 12. They say 19.6M households depend exclusively on OTA TV. That's about 17.8 percent of households. And these households have 45.5M TV sets total, and 1.3M digital sets. Which says that as of 2006, 6.6 percent of OTA households had converted to DTT. And that and additional 23.5M sets in cable/DBS homes use only OTA signals. So this sums up to 69M sets that use only OTA signals. Then there are the OTA/DBS and maybe soon OTA/cable combinations, not mentioned in the NPRM. And that was before the 1 March 2007 date, so things might have changed by now. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.