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On June 25, 2008, a group of 12 TV stations in Orlando, Florida ran a 60-second on-air message at 7:59pm that included 10 seconds in which the stations stopped transmitting their analog signals. During those 10 seconds, people with analog over-the-air (OTA) TV sets would have seen a black screen, while those with DTV-compatible sets would have seen a message saying that they've passed the test. Bright House Networks, the main cable operator in the market, provided a toll-free number that was given to viewers if they failed the test.
The test impacted around 365,000 households, and only 501 viewers called the 800 number to complain. The low number was not surprising to Shawn Bartelt, general manager of Cox Communications stations WFTV and WRDQ, because cable penetration in Orlando is 71% and satellite penetration is 22%, leaving only 7% as OTA households.
One hundred forty-six calls came from cable households served by Comcast. This is because the company is still delivering broadcast stations to its analog subscribers by receiving the over-the-air analog-broadcast signal. Comcast plans to serve subscribers with a downconverted version of WFTV's digital signal by next February. Bright House and Cox Communications, meanwhile, both receive direct fiber feeds of both standard-definition analog and HD signals from WFTV and other broadcast stations in the market.
One hundred twenty-three calls came from viewers with TV sets older than one year and receiving their TV signals over-the-air with antennas.
The test also gave a short-term ratings increase to participating TV stations. Of the 12 taking part, there was an 8% increase in total viewers compared with the previous week, which indicates that the stations were successful in building awareness.
More work has to be done on DTV education in Orlando, however. The market has a lot of second-home owners who live there in the winter and weren't there for the test. In addition, Orlando has a lot of apartment buildings and condos that are served by master-antenna-TV systems (MATV) that currently rely on receiving OTA analog signals and re-transmitting them to individual units. WFTV is meeting with these MATV operators to let them know that they need to upgrade their equipment to receive digital signals.
To read more about the digital conversion in the U.S., click here.
Source: Broadcasting & Cable, 06/26/2008
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