Senators Worried About TV 'Train Wreck'
By JOHN DUNBAR
Associated Press
July 27, 2007
Page 2 of 2
In April, the agency required retailers to disclose to consumers that televisions that can only receive analog signals are not equipped to receive over-the-air signals beyond Feb. 17, 2009.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is concerned that consumers who don't get the word will take it out on their elected representatives. ''They're not going to call you,'' she told Kneuer. ''They're going to call me. And they're going to be mad.''
Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, said television station owners are highly motivated to get the word out.
''Our very business is at stake here,'' he said.
Wharton said stations will begin airing public service announcements worth ''tens of millions of dollars'' beginning in December.
''Broadcasters will do our dead-level best to educate Americans on this transition,'' he said.
The digital transition is a bit more complicated when it comes to cable television. Digital cable subscribers with analog televisions need not worry. The digital box acts as a ''down-converter.''
But analog cable subscribers who do not have a digital cable box will either be supplied with a box by their cable company or their signal will be converted at the ''head end,'' the source of the signal.
Regardless, the industry has promised there will be no interruption in service.
''Cable companies have committed that customers will be able to view the signals even if they have analog TVs,'' said Brian Dietz, vice president in charge of communications for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
Satellite television subscribers will be unaffected.
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