Helpful commenter "cool" has found a list of the 491 stations that have asked to go all digital on Feb 17. It also includes the stations that had previously switched prior to Feb 17. See it here.
According to a list made public this afternoon by the FCC, a total of 491 TV stations have informed the agency that they want to go ahead with the digital television transition on Feb. 17 as planned. That's on top of the 190 stations that have already switched or will have gone digital by Feb. 17. Congress last week voted to delay the drop-dead switch date to June 12 in order to give consumers more time to prepare, though the measure has yet to be signed by President Obama. The FCC has not yet said how many stations it will allow to transition on the February date if the delay bill becomes law.
via MediaBiz.
Between a quarter and a third of all TV stations want to go ahead and pull the plug on analog Feb. 17, which could make for what is effectively a staggered start to the DTV era, depending on how many the FCC allows to go on that date.
via 491 TV Stations Want To Keep Feb. 17 DTV Transition Date - Broadcasting & Cable.
The Federal Communications Commission is reporting that 491 TV stations are seeking to go ahead with the digital TV changeover Feb. 17, despite congressional action pushing back the national changeover to June 12.
The switch includes some big-market stations, among them stations in Minneapolis, Memphis, Tenn., Pittsburgh, Reno, Nev., Phoenix, San Diego, Nashville, Tenn., San Francisco, Tulsa, Okla., and Baltimore.
The FCC said those 491 are in addition to the 190 stations that already have terminated their digital signal or will do so before Feb. 17.
The FCC notice today means that more than a third of the nation’s approximately 1,800 TV stations will switch early, which could rile critics of the early transition, among them President Barach Obama. However, there were no immediate comments Tuesday night.
via 491 Stations Plan to Go Digital Feb. 17 - TVWeek
The Federal Communications Commission said that 491 of the 1,796 full-power TV stations in the country intend to keep the original date. Two independent stations in the Los Angeles area, KVMD and KJLA, also plan to switch Tuesday.
via Analog TV broadcasts end next week for many U.S. stations - Los Angeles Times.
Does anyone have a full list of these 491 stations? I’d be curious to see it. Though really I’m curious to see a breakdown by market.
Julia:
http://www.tvweek.com/2009/02/10/DTVtransitionlist.pdf
Thanks, cool.
Indeed. Thanks for finding that list, cool. I have included it at the top of the post.
4 of the 5 channels here are going digital in a week. Which pretty much means the transition will be underway then, unless analog users only watch our ABC affiliate.
I’m assuming that some stations will be transitioning pretty much every week between now and June 12. How’s that going to affect Nielsen ratings?
David, Nielsen’s reporting process is already somewhat delayed because of the DTV transition. Theoretically, in their measuring process if a Nielsen family has analog only and goes dark, their watching stops, but my guess is that may not happen in practice. As far as when stations switch, my understanding is that it’s going to be either Feb 17 or June 12, very few stations will switch in between.
I wish I could have sympathy for people, but this has been in the works for 2 YEARS now. The coupons have temporarily run out for now, and I hope they fund some more, but I can’t have much sympathy for people who ran out only in the last 6 weeks to get a digital converter when local and national stations have blanketed the airwaves since last spring saying this was coming. And if you can’t afford the $10 for the digital converter (after coupon, of course), then I have to wonder how you were able to afford your TV in the first place.
I do like what one or two cable companies have done: offer a basic package for $7.95 a month. (no converter box or anything, so it only costs the cable company a cable. Only ESPN would cost the cable company anything significant.) Anybody in trouble at this point probably wouldn’t watch much more TV past TBS, CNN, or ESPN anyway.
Patrick, aren’t the basic packages just for broadcast nets? You don’t get any cable channels, just what you would have gotten if you had a converter box, but without having to go out and buy a converter box. After two months you have already paid more than you would for the converter box with coupon, and after about 6 months you’ve paid more than the converter box without the coupon. Of course, a lot of people will fall for it anyway.
Julia, I think the low-price Comcast offer does include a *few* more channels than broadcast. Our local offer, anyway, is Limited Basic for $10 a month (or FREE with Internet and Phone, LOL). Limited basic seems to include broadcast nets, C-SPAN, Weather Channel, EWTN, local public access, QVC, and HSN. RTN, Retro Television Network, may be included too but I’m not sure.
Not exactly a channel lineup worth an extra $10 a month there. I do wonder, though, how many people will choose such a service over no TV at all? In particular, what would the coupon-holding wait-list people do? I wonder if they could buy boxes at full price, then mail the coupon in for a rebate?