Digital TV Test

Posted on September 12, 2008

There has been plenty of concern over the past year that the FCC isn’t really prepared for the shift from analog tv signals to digital tv signals that will happen early next year. Well, they have finally had a chance to see with a recent switchover test in Wilmington, N.C.

So how did it go? Well, the FCC fielded over 1200 calls in two days. Though that sounds like a lot, they remind us that is really only 1/2 of one percent, a nominal number.

But let’s see the whole picture. In this test region, they did a large amount of campaigning to educate. It was far more intensive than has been done nationwide. If they expect similar results, they will have to offer similar ad campaigns everywhere else. In addition, the percentage of households that will be affected will be half again as large as the test group. Basic calculations then tell us they may have close to a million callers. No way can they handle that so expect foreign outsourcing like every other tech support call you make.

Looks like there will be some less than happy people based on some tests I know of in my area. It just depends on location as I know of some who are ecstatic becasue they are getting 6 or 7 crystal clear pics where they were getting 3 to 5 barely acceptable to acceptable signals previously. But I have also heard of people who had fairly snowy but watchable signals who are now able to receive only one channel.

As I wrote in an earlier post, Dish and Direct can expect to pick up some new customers.