Jul 28, 2008 11:14 pm US/Central
Good Question: Why Does WCCO Have To Go Digital?
(WCCO)
The public service announcements are all over the place, warning people without cable or satellite TV that television is going to change. But why are we switching to digital TV?
Darrell Anderson from Minneapolis e-mailed asking, "Is this whole thing a ploy to make everyone sign up for pay TV? It appears to me that we're going to leave a lot of folks behind on this and the enjoyment of TV will be gone."
The federal government is forcing television stations to stop broadcasting their analog signal on February 17, 2009. Unless you have a digital tuner (in a newer television) or a conversion box hooked up to your rabbit-ears antenna, you won't be able to watch TV.
"There are three reasons for the switch," said Carlos Gutierrez, the United States Secretary of Commerce. However, the decision to switch was officially made by Congress in 2005.
"We've been planning this a long time, over a decade, but we needed Congress' approval we got that in 2005," he said.
Originally, the shutoff date for analog television was supposed to be December 31, 2006; but consumers were not purchasing new televisions with digital tuners at a quick enough rate. The manufacturers were also slow in developing smaller, less expensive digital-ready television sets.
The electronics companies have been studying the issue since the mid-1980s, when a desire to upgrade the quality of transmission to high-definition prompted a desire to better use the transmission airwaves.
Analog broadcasts take up more space, according to Gutierrez.
"Digital broadcasts use the space more efficiently," he said.
The most important reason for the switch, according to Gutierrez, is to help in an emergency.
"We'll be able to use that spectrum for emergency services. Today, in many areas around the country, fire departments can't communicate with police departments, because they don't have the same frequency," said Gutierrez.
Another reason is financial. Verizon Wireless and AT&T are two of the companies who paid close to $20 billion in an auction of the analog spectrum run by the Federal Communications Commission. The government earned no money when TV stations were using that spectrum.
"So a whole round of new innovations and new products that we can't even visualize today will come as a result of this," said Gutierrez.
The third reason will be the most apparent to consumers. Because digital television squeezes more information into a smaller space, television stations will be able to add additional channels which will be broadcast over the air.
Instead of just getting channel 4, for example, viewers will get 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, etc.
"This is an important step toward the future," said Gutierrez.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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