I've received a few e-mails (though only a few) along the lines of "How come you're not posting about the digital transition going into effect today! It's a big deal!"
The answer is this: we have posted about it before. And while it is a big deal to industry wonks and potentially to the ratings, the # of people who visit this blog who are impacted by it is so close to zero, it didn't seem like anything we needed to be covering in near real time. When we can get a read on what the impact is on the ratings numbers as a result of the transition, I'm certain we will be writing about it. If there is noticeable impact, we'll probably be writing about it somewhat regularly. If there is no visible impact to the numbers, you can count on us writing about that, too. At least a little.
Currently, we are not expecting delays to the numbers we regularly post as a result of the transition, though that could certainly change and we will update you if it does.
But for those who crave coverage of the conversion, there are a lot of sites covering it. Broadcasting & Cable has a lot of numbers regarding stations that switched. Keep in mind that some 641 stations had already pulled the plug on their analog broadcasts or before the original February 17 conversion date.
186 stations were going all-digital between midnight last night and 6 a.m. this morning, with 239 scheduled between 6 a.m. and noon, 155 between noon and 6 p.m. and the rest (391) by midnight tonight (11:59:59 technically).
An FCC spokesman says the commission continues to monitor the transition's progress via its 200 staffers in the field and "feelers out" to broadcasters, cable operators and converter box manufacturers. It will release early returns on call volumes to its DTV helpline (1-888-CALL-FCC) sometime Friday afternoon, then update them over the weekend.
We dropped it at 1 pm (to avoid affecting noon news) which fell out during the middle of a meeting and one person interrupted it to make sure we all made a point to remember where we were when we went digital. You know, in case our grandchildren ask someday.
I have to say it’s wierd that the transition is happening over a day rather than at a set time. If they’d have chosen, say, 4am EDT, then everyone could have hit the rescan button first thing in the morning and that’ve been that. But instead everyone’s having to scan multiple times just to have uninterrupted Friday and Saturday viewing.
As I’ve also said in my blog, I’m finding it hard to understand why scanning should be a manual process too, given channels assignments are going to change more frequently with DTV, with broadcasters adding new digital subchannels and generally playing with the new toys. Each device doing an autoscan at 3am shouldn’t be difficult and it would fix many problems. If that sounds outrageous, bear in mind the system has to go “offline” and do some scanning anyway to get EIT data once a day. Adding two minutes to the process to scan what the receiver last saw as dead air would make the process more intuitive and not mean people “remembering” to do it themselves.
According to Mark Berman there won’t be any metered market ratings until June 19th. I wonder why only the metered market numbers are affected and not the fast affiliates/fast nationals.
So, what happened today?
Correct If im wrong people.
Years ago my sister, who had DirecTV told me that u had to pay extra money to get local stations. I asked about using an antenna and she said the quality was bad.
So now I’m wondering with Digital TV, will the quality be similar to Cable or Satellite? If so, I would get over-the-air TV because its free! Can someone answer these questions please; im just curious.
Shem, if you have an HDTV and the right antenna, you can a get completely clear HD picture over-the-air. (Assuming your stations broadcast in HD, of course.)
Oh just to be clear the questions are: with Digital TV, will the quality be similar to Cable or Satellite?
and
Do you still have to pay extra for Local stations when you are hooked to cable or satellite?
Oh okay; thanks was just wondering.
Do you still have to pay extra for Local stations when you are hooked to cable or satellite?
No. I can’t remember right now if must carry rules apply to satellite, and don’t feel like looking it up, but whether they are forced to or not, DirecTV and Dish both carry local stations pretty much everywhere. I think there may be some places where they may not carry your local stations, but then they replace them with another city’s, so you will still get broadcast primetime.
Also, to be clear, you do not need HDTV to get digital signals. Again, if you have the right antenna (and depending on where you live and what is around you, that might mean an outdoor antenna) you will be able to get a clear picture. I’m not sure if it’s cable/sat quality, but it shouldn’t be fuzzy the way OTA analog can be. With digital signals, either you get can receive it or you can’t, so it’s not like with analog.
Dish Network charges about $5 more for local channels. If you have an HD DVR then you can hook up an external antenna and receive them OTA for free, but you get no listings information for the OTA channels unless you subscribe to the (redundant) satellite locals.
Dish doesn’t carry all the locals though it carries all the major networks. Also it doesn’t carry all the HD versions of the locals in each market even if it claims to have the HD locals for that area. As an example, we’re missing our CBS, PBS, and CW affiliates. ION doesn’t broadcast in HD, but isn’t carried at all (SD or HD) because of an argument they’re having with Dish over the number of infomercials they show.
Don’t know the deal with DirecTV.
For cable, the cable companies have to give you the locals as part of any cable package you subscribe to if the local stations themselves have requested that.
Dish still doesn’t carry local stations by default? I have a friend who used to work at DirecTV who said they used to get a lot of customers from Dish every time they dropped local, which they did off and on for a while there in different areas.
i know there wer articles on this
i am wondering do people think the changeover is necessary and are people getting screwed in a way?
i hear that but i dont know the arguement well enough
ill cite this
http://tech.msn.com/news/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=20271195>1=40000+
so
are people getting screwed or not? i hear both things but im cornfused as always
isnt it a good thing?
also something missed i think is the SAG vote
anyone know?
does that-will that effect my Tv viewing? if so how?
the writer strike screwed us for the year is it a nothing vote or will it mess things
oh and sci-fi is now officially SYFY and i find that hilarious as my son already calls it syphilis channel and other colorful names as “siffy” the phonetic to the kids apparently means that veneral diesease
guess the suits running the channel missed that-too funny
or is that what they were going for?
even bad press is gd press as long as they remember you and are talking about you
perhaps they are genuises…im not sure lol
chet, the article you linked to is about a completely different digital change, one that has been almost ignored by the TV press, but will likely effect a lot of people as well.
The cable companies are changing their systems to send many of the networks they currently send in analog format in digital format. If you have a cable box at the end of your coax cable it doesn’t effect you. However, if you plug your coax directly into a device like a DVR or TV or (in my case) an analog TV tuner for your computer, then you have to get either a digital adapter (which is what I got) or a set top box or you will lose the ability to see many cable channels when your cable company makes the switch.
I don’t have cable or satellite. All my HD is for free. And yes, I use rabbit ears on an HD, and with a couple of exceptions I can reach every station I want.
apologies bill im not sure how i missed that
im usually gd with the article things
at least they are usually on topic…
thnx for the heads up again apologies evrbdy
still alil confused now more on the second thing lolz
I wonder why only the metered market numbers are affected and not the fast affiliates/fast nationals.
Depending on the technology in the meter boxes, Nielsen may have to exchange the analog meter for the digital meter physically in each household. If that’s the case, it’s probably a matter of priorities.
squiggleslash says:
“As I’ve also said in my blog, I’m finding it hard to understand why scanning should be a manual process too, given channels assignments are going to change more frequently with DTV, with broadcasters adding new digital subchannels and generally playing with the new toys. Each device doing an autoscan at 3am shouldn’t be difficult and it would fix many problems.”
One objection to this notion is that it’s not always possible to “optimize” indoor antenna position, so an autoscan can both dump receivable channels and create zombie channels. The latter is probably a short-term concern, but the former is just needless irritation.
>> So now I’m wondering with Digital TV, will the quality be similar to Cable or Satellite?
Comparing the same network station, a large portion of the time it’s going to look better OTA due to a higher bitrate (sometimes MUCH higher), particularly if the channel isn’t broadcasting a bunch of subchannels on the same OTA frequency.
The OTA signal isn’t subject to the recompression that Cable/Sat companies will very often put it through once they recieve it (which they do to save bandwidth and help them squeeze more channels in).
As a way-far-out-in-the-skirts item, Chicago’s WWME-CA (23) is continuing analog transmission with what was the analog content of WCIU (26/MeTV), except that they will be simulcasting WMAQ (local NBC) morning and evening news, as well as WGN nightly news.
Any guesses as to what the Nielsen accounting would be for this mess if the sample included an OTA household?
Okay Insulin Junkie. This is all weird to me, but interesting since I do not live in the USA. Are there any Nielsen Samples which use over-the-air TV? i would think that the families would all be using DVR and Satellite or some other “hi-tech” device.