[opendtv] Martin: 15% of Stations Face Smaller DTV-Coverage Areas
- From: "Dale Kelly" <dalekelly@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "OPENDTV" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:07:35 -0700
See the FCC's feigned statement of surprise below. Does the term
disingenuous, or worse, come to mind?
Martin: 15% of Stations Face Smaller DTV-Coverage Areas
FCC chairman tells House Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing agency
working on identifying all of those markets.
Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin told a House
Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing audience Tuesday that the FCC was
working on ways to help out viewers of the approximately 15% of TV stations
with digital-TV signals that will not reach as many viewers as their analog
signals did. One of the lessons from the Wilmington, N.C., early analog
shutoff was the number of out-of-market viewers of NBC affiliate WECT-TV
there that lost the signal. While some of those viewers were able to get a
signal from an NBC affiliate in their market, some would lose access to an
NBC station altogether, Martin said.
Martin told the committee that since it was the FCC's goal for viewers not
to lose access to signals they had historically watched, it was working on
ways to fix the problem, including perhaps an antenna to reach those areas
where historic out-of-market carriage was lost due to changes in the contour
of the digital signal. Martin said that perhaps 15% of the nation's TV
stations might have carriage shrink "in a significant way," similar to the
changes in WECT's coverage area.
He added that the effect of that changed contour was the key lesson learned
from Wilmington. He said FCC engineers were working on identifying all of
those markets -- he said it would take a few weeks -- and the FCC would
address remedies on a case-by-case basis, calling it the "highest priority"
for the commission. Subcommittee chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) told Martin
the issue needed resolving "very soon," at least by communicating the fact
to viewers who might lose their signals do to coverage-area changes.
Broadcasting & Cable
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