Southern US Border TV Stations Are Fighting The DTV Transition- And Winning
Greg Tarr,
August 17, 2008
3 min read
One of the most under reported stories of the DTV transition is about how the Spanish language US broadcasters within 50 miles of the Mexican border have succeeded in persuading the US Senate to exempt them from shutting their analog broadcasts for a full 5 years after the Feb 17, 2009 national analog TV shut down affects all other (standard power) TV broadcasters in the USA. If passed by the House or Representatives after the summer recess under H.R. 5435, and signed by President Bush, any TV station within 50 miles of the US border may continue analog broadcasting to a relatively small number of persons living by the US-Mexico border that are resisting using the government coupon program and the purchase a digital to analog converter.
Why a five year extension? Border broadcasters claim a number of non-English speaking Hispanics near the US border will opt to simply switch all their TV viewing to Mexican based legacy analog TV stations, depriving these U S broadcasters of viewers, which translates to lower ad revenues. The border Spanish language TV stations also claim their TV watchers would miss out on any future US emergency broadcasts due to their viewers’ decision to forego the DTV coupon program and the purchase of a converter box.
US Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) claims “many Hispanic households are still unprepared for the transition. In fact, according to a recent report by Nielsen, Hispanic households are among the least prepared for the transition…†he continues “According to Nielsen, 31.1 percent of El Paso’s households rely exclusively on antennas for reception. This is well above the national average, which stands at 13 percent, and is the second-highest rate in the nation, next to the Rio Grande Valley. This means that an estimated 94,000 El Paso households need converter boxes.
(Reyes continues) While the federal government has offered to offset part of the $60 digital converter boxes by providing each household with two coupons, thousands of residents have yet to purchase one. As of today, only 34,474 coupons have been redeemed in El Paso, representing only one-sixth of the number needed if each household in El Paso that relies on antenna reception requests both coupons from the government. With just over 200 days to go until the switch is made to DTV, these statistics reflect a very real and disturbing prospect – that an alarming number of El Pasoans will lose access to critical emergency alerts. With the severe weather and flooding our region has experienced in recent years, I am not willing to gamble and hope that approximately 60,000 households will soon flock to the nearest electronics store and pick up a converter box.â€Â
Through public service announcements, television broadcasters (including the Spanish language stations) across the United States have been informing their respective viewers about the analog Feb. 17, 2009 shut off and the DTV coupon program. Apparently this is not sufficient enough for Rep. Reyes or the entire US Senate. The legislation is called the “DTV Border Fix Act” and passed the US Senate (just before their summer recess), by UNANIMOUS CONSENT.
The HD Guru ponders if the arguments made by Rep. Reyes could also be made for other special interest groups such as the fixed income elderly. After all the billions of dollars spent by broadcasters and tax paying consumers (for the coupon program and converters) for the US digital TV transition, doesn’t the public want a 100% digital transition? Should special interest groups, for whatever reason, allow any TV stations to waste millions of watts of electricity by continuing their simultaneous analog broadcasts to sustain their business model?
If you don’t feel there should be exemptions to the national changeover, the HD GURU suggests contacting your Congress person prior to the vote which is planned after Congress returns to session from its summer recess.
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9 Comments
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The special interest group you are leaving out are the US television stations, and their employees, who will be harmed when viewers along the border simply tune into the Mexico stations who broadcast in both English and Spanish. No doubt advertising revenue, which is tied to ratings, will drop for those US broadcasters who make the switch.
Almost every network has affiliates on the border in Mexico. Mexico is not switching for several decades. Which is great because there will be a market for our used and obsolete televisions.
I don’t think it’s got to do with pocketbooks, really, speaking for myself and several people like Genaro that we are Mexico citizens that watch US tv stations, our signal will not improve anytime soon, and I don’t know if we will be able to use converter boxes in mexican territory(do any of you know?) so because we are not upgrading yet, we do need analog signal, so theres no shame in that.
Shame on Spanish language border stations pushing not to be included in the switch to digital. All they care about is their pocketbooks.
Later, don’t complain that our city and people are treated differently by the government.
Don’t complain about being cataloqued by congress and state repes as being located in Mexico.
Shame on you.
From my experience with DTV in poor weather conditions (only 30 miles from the transmitters), I think that analog TV should continue to be broadcast nationwide, not just near the border.
When it comes to severe weather warnings, DTV is just not ready for prime time. Snowy radar picture and sound beat “frozen screen/no sound” every time.
Well I am a Mexican citizen and live in Juarez right accross El Paso Texas, and I have seen already El Paso getting ready to do the change and actually have a program to get the converter boxes Mexico has not seid anything and I do not see us (Mexico) getting ready to do this transition for the people of the border region like they don´t exist.
I hope that the local TV stations in the US side are extended the permission to keep on sending analog signal because I don´t see the Mexican goverment doing something for there people soon.
Someone needs to read the bill, it still requires conversion to digital. It only authorizes stations who voluntarily apply to the FCC to receive authority if it is established that to continue analog is in the public interest. Why would English language stations care about Sapanish only households? Could it be that they want the non english houshoulds to drop out of Nielsen and thus make their financial position stronger. After all if you check, the Spanish language stations, both US and Mexican on average have higher prime time and News ratings than their English counterparts in these border markets. They are all residents, mostly legal, and emergency disaster warnings and Amber Alerts are their right also. Also what is wrong if Spanish Language stations protect their business interests, isn’t that the American Way, just ask any Chamber of Commerce. Sounds like this is a false GURU sponsored by Special Interests of their own.
The border is a very unique part of the country. If you don’t take into account the language difference in the El Paso,Texas market there are over 22 over the air television signals from both El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. That is unheard of for many cities across the country. The southern border area of the U.S is also among the poorest counties in the country. While I personally have DTV and HDTV I understand why (other than the money factor) there would be concerns over thousands of people losing television signals in February because the A) still don’t know about DTV transition B) can’t afford the converter boxes despite the coupons C)Just can’t get the coupons for the converters because of their home residence location (Check the rules, if you live in an old folks home or in a trailer park and get your mail in one central location you CANNOT sign up for the coupon)
I know of many families that live in poor conditions along the border “shanty towns” if you will, where the only way they get TV reception is through rabbit ear antennas. I just think in this case there may be more to it than just about money. Also, the Border Fix Act does not mandate that a television station has to keep its analog transmitter going after Feb. 2009. Any station wanting to do the switch can do so.
One other issue remains LPTV, and stations that use translators to get their signal further out of the transmitter location. The El Paso market as well as the Rio Grande Valley of Texas are so spread out, that translators are a necessity to get signals to the entire DMA. Those won’t be digital.
[…] Home to five years after the deadline. The House of Representatives, according to an spread by HD Guru, has already passed the DTV Border Fix Act bill by unanimous consent. … […]
There is also one other major transitional factor people are unaware of as broadcasters go from analog to digital – transmission range! Digital reception is perfect when the signal is strong enough, and annoyingly pixelates when some signal weakness is present. When the signal weakens more, one receives nothing at all. Only those close enough to transmitting antennas will receive perfect digital broadcasts over the air as the FCC and congress imagined. Those who now get by with snowy weak analog stations will be shocked in February when they only get a blank blue screen, with no practical alternative.