FOR LPTV, DTV IS A COUNTDOWN TO DISASTER

For most full-power TV stations, the analog cut-off date of Feb. 18, 2009, is now no more than a big and sometimes costly chore. They are already broadcasting digital signals so it’s mostly a matter of switching to the right channels and shuffling around antennas on the tower.

But for the far more numerous low-power TV stations and translators, the cut-off date is an impending disaster. That’s because most haven’t been given a chance to build digital facilities. They will have to continue broadcasting analog signals long after the cut-off date.

The problem with that is that the government and full-power broadcasters have launched an aggressive campaign to equip millions of viewers with government-subsidized converter boxes that, in essence, turns their old TV sets into digital receivers no longer able to pick up analog signals.

Compounding the problem is that few low-power stations are carried on cable systems and, because they don’t have must-carry rights, they can’t demand carriage.

They will be analog ignored by a digital world.

Faced with this dire prospect, the Community Broadcasters Association, which represents the 2,800 Class A and other low-power stations, is turning to the government for help. They want it to require A-to-D converter boxes that pass through analog signals and they want limited must carry rights.

Ron Bruno is president of the Community Broadcasters Association, the trade organization for low-power and Class A television stations.

Bruno is also president of the Bruno Goodworth Network Inc., which operates 11 Class A and Class A-qualified stations in the Pittsburgh region. He also owns the Videohouse, a Pittsburgh-based television production facility.

In this interview with TVNEWSDAY Contributing Editor Arthur Greenwald, Bruno raises the alarm and makes the case for government intervention of behalf on his fellow low-power broadcasters.

According to your recent testimony, the low-power stations will more or less disappear in February 2009 because most digital conversion boxes won’t be able to pick them up their signal. Why is that?              

Most of those boxes only receive an ATSC digital signal and do not pass through an analog NTSC signal. That means that we lose viewers every time person gets that government coupon, buys a box and plugs it in. That TV no longer receives our analog signals.

Everyone knows that the 1,700 licensed full-power stations will turn off their analog signals in February of ’09. But that’s not true for the 1,600 low-power stations, 4,000 translator stations and the 910 Class A stations. We’ll still be broadcasting analog for several more years.

So you guys have not been given digital channels the way that the full-power stations have?   

The full-power stations were given digital channels and over 10 years to operate them and deliver their digital signals to cable headends and work out the bugs.

The FCC only just recently granted second channel construction permits—not licenses—to low-power and Class A-qualified stations six months ago. To get the license, you have to build your second channel. Manufacturers are just starting to build transmitters for us because we just received these permits.

So we’ve got a three-year window for it and there’s only 35 percent that have been granted so far, so we have a long way to go before our industry actually goes all digital. In fact, the FCC has not given us a cutoff date. We have to make a business decision as to the best time to flash cut to digital.

And flash cutting means pulling the plug on your analog signal and switching to digital?

Right, on the same channel. Now, according to Nielsen, only 12.7 percent of the audience relies on over-the-air signals. So when do we flash cut? When there’s 5 percent left? 2 percent? Only 1percent not converted to digital?               

But as a practical matter, you want to make the switch as soon as possible, don’t you? The full-power stations have a much larger audience, so, when they go digital in February 2009, won’t that leave very few over-the-air viewers who will bother to look for Class A stations on analog?

Correct. We don’t want to lose any viewers. But, as of now, only 35 percent of our industry has been granted two channels, and most of the digital converter boxes send only the digital channels to [analog] televisions.

We understand that the Samsung will pass both signals. The other manufacturers tell us they were unaware up to 80 percent of all U.S. television stations would continue to broadcast on analog after February, 2009.

Of course, by “all stations,” you’re counting the low-power stations and translators along with the full-power stations which are going digital in February ’09.

Right. But we’re going to have analog broadcasting for quite a while. Our position is that any converter box that doesn’t deliver both an analog and digital signal violates the All Channel Receiver Act. It’s pretty easy for a manufacturer to stick an NTSC tuner and an ATSC tuner into a box or at least to passively allow the analog signal to pass through.

We’re obviously talking to the manufacturers and making them aware of this problem. We want them to rework these boxes before they get distributed to make sure they deliver an NTSC signal.

Our board is also deciding whether to file a complaint with the FCC.

So once you make the manufacturers aware, do you feel they’re being responsive?

So far, they’re resisting very intently. No one wants to stop this distribution of boxes, including us. Most of them already are in the final phase of design, but, as I understand it, adding an NTSC tuner or pass through isn’t a big deal. In most cases it’s just a software addition. We feel the law already exists to require them to do so.

If you end up having to file a complaint with the FCC, do you think that it can respond fast enough to address your problem to prevent a crisis for your stations in February 2009?

If it came to the point where we had to file a complaint, I would think it would be an incredibly expensive process to recall all those boxes. So it makes a lot of sense to resolve this before they start distributing boxes in March.

Let’s say you’re successful in modifying the converter boxes. How easy will it be to find those analog signals? Will they just show up on my channel lineup like the digital signals?

Right. It’s seamless. Obviously you would notice that the analog signal looks different than a digital signal in terms of quality. But most importantly, our industry can survive. That 12.7 percent of the United States will continue to be able to see our analog signals while we are developing our digital signals for the next few years until our cutoff date, whenever that is.

Of course that same figure means the vast majority of viewers get their signal through cable or satellite. What’s your best argument for getting your stations onto cable systems?

We have a proposal in front of Congress right now that says that all 910 Class A stations will flash cut to digital today in exchange for a place on the most basic digital cable tier within our coverage area. This will free up 910 Class A analog channels that otherwise would be tied up for the next five to 10 years, whatever it turns out to be.

By seeking a place on the digital tier we’re recognizing that cable operators need their analog bandwidth.

If you got must-carry status for all the Class A stations, would you still work to modify those digital conversion boxes?

Well it’s two separate issues. We still have 1,600 low-power stations that are not included in this proposal and they still have to survive.

The class A stations were created for two reasons. Before 1999, a low-power station had to give up its frequency if a full-power station wanted it for a second channel. In fact that happened to me in Pittsburgh when KDKA took over my channel 25 in Butler, Pa. I had to transfer to channel 44 at my own expense.

Obviously low-power stations wanted permanency, and also must-carry status. Billy Tauzin was chairman of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee at the time and he told us that the only way we would get either was to clean up our act and offer something in the public good. And we committed to three hours a week of local programming.

And that got us permanency. That is, 910 stations took advantage of the offer. We’re the only broadcasters who are required by law to specifically produce local programming.

Billy Tauzin also told us he could get us must-carry but that never happened so we’re pursuing it again.

So only Class A stations must offer original local programming?

That’s right and it specifically says, produced within the grade B contour of each station. That’s another important reason we need and deserve to be on cable. We’re spending all this money on local programming. We’re serving our communities.

What are some of the local programs that you’re producing?

Well every single day for the past seven years, we’ve been broadcasting a noon Mass from downtown Pittsburgh. On Saturday night we produce a two-hour horror movie show called It’s Alive. Every Saturday during football season ,we broadcast live coverage of games featuring Slippery Rock University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and others. We also do a weekly sports talk show and we carry two hours of programming each week produced by students at Point Park College.

That’s a impressive assortment. But how do you respond to people who point out that it was made clear that your channels came with no guarantee of must-carry status and that’s still the case. Why should you get it now?

When we were first offered these channels, it was a very good business model. Cable penetration was only 20 or 30 percent. But it’s grown to the point where we’re left with only 12.7 percent of our audience capable of seeing us. It’s no longer viable. We have to have cable carriage.

So in other words, you’re saying, hey, you got into it in good faith, but the landscape has changed and now you need some congressional help to level the playing field.

Absolutely correct; and what we’re proposing isn’t going to hurt any cable operators. We’re free. We’re not looking for retrans fees or money of any kind.  We’re only asking for digital-tier carriage so we can be seen by viewers in our coverage areas. Also, compression methods keep getting better and better so that the space it takes to carry us will be smaller and smaller.

I might add that folks from the telcos—Verizon especially—have been incredibly receptive and fair to our industry. We don’t know of any of our members being refused carriage by Verizon. We think cable can do the same.

You sound optimistic. Assuming all this comes to pass, will it put your industry on potentially more equal footing with full-power stations?

If we were on cable, the answer to that would be yes, to a degree. Remember, our proposal does not ask for a full DMA carriage. It only asks for carriage within our coverage area, which in most cases is not the entire DMA. So in terms of local car dealers, yes, we’d be more equal. But for a regional advertiser we would probably not be competitive with full-power stations.

Special thanks to CBA counsel Peter Tannenwald for providing additional information and context about the legal and technical issues surrounding the CBA’s efforts to modify digital converter boxes and to pursue must-carry status.