EchoStar & DIRECTV Could Miss Digital TV Deadline

[Poke]

EchoStar & DIRECTV Could Miss Digital TV Deadline

The satcasters warn the FCC that local stations may delay in providing digital signals.
By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (September 4, 2007) -- EchoStar and DIRECTV have warned the Federal Communications Commission they may not deliver all local TV signals in digital when the nation switches to Digital TV on February 17, 2009.

On the Digital TV transition date, all local broadcasters must switch their analog signals to digital which means viewers will need a pay TV service, a Digital TV or a digital converter box to watch television.

But in statements submitted last week to the FCC, the satcasters say they likely won't be ready by February 17, 2009 if local broadcasters delay in switching from analog to digital.

If the satcasters are unable to offer all local signals in digital on February 17, 2009, millions of satellite viewers could lose local channels on that day. (However, viewers would be able to see local channels that provided their digital signals in time for the satcasters to make the switch.)

Noting that it now offers local TV service in 175 markets, EchoStar told the FCC that it would be impossible to switch each station's signal from analog to digital in a short period of time.

"Given the magnitude of the switch-over...even conducting the transition over a matter of many months would be a substantial hurdle," EchoStar stated.

In a similar filing, DIRECTV noted that each cable TV system only has to switch about 12 local stations while the satellite services have to convert over 1,000 stations from analog to digital across the country.

EchoStar and DIRECTV urged local stations to make the switchover long in advance of the February 17, 2009 deadline to give them more time to address issues of quality control and related technical issues.

Unless the local stations cooperate, EchoStar told the FCC that "there is not sufficient manpower for such a mammoth task (meeting the Digital TV deadline.)."

EchoStar and DIRECTV also urged the FCC to give TV providers more time to convert all signals to digital if broadcasters delay in their switch to digital. The satcasters said they did not know how many stations might be late in providing their signals.

In its filing, DIRECTV said the FCC should also force local stations to declare their transition plans by December 1, 2007, as proposed by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

 

[goaliebob99]

Nice post! I didnt realize that they havent finished this yet. I thought that the signals recived at the pop was allready digital from fiber and antennas. Allthough changing out the equipment shouldnt be that hard providing if everything goes well. As far as the man hours, Hey Echostar im looking for a job! How about the Monee uplink?

 

[beast37799]

no offense but its not like everyone didnt know thins was comming

 

[digiblur]

Nice post! I didnt realize that they havent finished this yet. I thought that the signals recived at the pop was allready digital from fiber and antennas. Allthough changing out the equipment shouldnt be that hard providing if everything goes well. As far as the man hours, Hey Echostar im looking for a job! How about the Monee uplink?

From the article it looks like they need to upgrade the POPs, not the uplinks.

 

[iwc5893]

I find it hard to believe that E* and D* actually agreed on something!

 

[Hall]

Does Dish *have* to provide locals ?

On a related note, if Dish and local stations can't come to carriage agreements for the digital channels today, what happens when the analogs are shut off ? Won't the locals be more motivated because they'll have NO carriage otherwise ?

 

[richiephx]

I think a simpler and more logical solution should be that local channels who do not meet the deadline should close their doors, period.

 

[harshness]

Here's another angle:

DIRECTV and DISH Network would both love to be able to send down-converted digital channels now (where an SD subchannel is not available) and they're trying to weasel the FCC into relenting on their prohibition of same.

 

[RockinHARD26]

DirectTV and Dish both knew about the deadline, its nothing new. They want to take the good ole' time, and now its time. This movement has been out for many many years.

 

[goaliebob99]

From the article it looks like they need to upgrade the POPs, not the uplinks.

Yea your right, im at one of those weird locations where the pop is the uplink

 

[vurbano]

At this point this is absurd. It would serve E* and D* right if the FCC forbid them to convert anything. Let them lose customers, and force them to drop all penalties for early termination along with refunds of up front rental fees. Hit them where it hurts and maybe then they will learn not to thumb their noses.

 

[harshness]

no offense but its not like everyone didnt know thins was comming

The thing that isn't coming is the stations setting up SD digital feeds much before the deadline. If many wait until the last minute, what are the satellite carriers supposed to do in the mean time?

Obviously, this is a major concern with respect to stations that don't currently offer an SD digital feed. Will they multiplex, or will they add another frequency? Going forward, I'm not sure everyone has decided how they will divvy up their channels. More than one of the digital feeds in my market doesn't include an SD simulcast.

 

[digiblur]

The thing that isn't coming is the stations setting up SD digital feeds much before the deadline. If many wait until the last minute, what are the satellite carriers supposed to do in the mean time?

Obviously, this is a major concern with respect to stations that don't currently offer an SD digital feed. Will they multiplex, or will they add another frequency? Going forward, I'm not sure everyone has decided how they will divvy up their channels. More than one of the digital feeds in my market doesn't include an SD simulcast.

It's no big deal not having a duplicate SD feed. It's waste of bandwidth.

I know two families that live outside of cable service and don't watch TV enough to warrant paying for satellite. Netflix and OTA locals are plenty for them. They both use digital tuners to pick up their locals. They have the choice of watching in 4:3 with the sides chopped off, or they watch in letterbox mode. Some of the best TV I've seen period...downrezzed 1080i on a 27inch SD set.

 

[hil98032]

Dish has connected with a 3rd party to offer eastcoast locals to areas who do not have locals available. As a retailer I talked with them at Team Summit 2007. This way they are not breaking any laws and can still offer network stations to the entire nation.

 

[Hall]

What good does that do for 85+% of the country who do have locals available ?? They're also re-transmitting analog broadcasts anyway, not digital, and that's the point of this thread.

 

[mike123abc]

The problem is not with Dish or DIRECTV. They are just worried that 1000 stations will put it off until the last minute and there is no way they can redo 1000 stations in a day/week/month. They need stations about 6 months out to make thier signals available to them so that they can go to each local point of reception and change the equipement to pick up the new channel. Remember now they are REQUIRED to carry the analog signal. They cannot carry the digital signal until the local channel tells them they are changing. They do not have the abilty to switch out that much equipment overnight.

 

[digiblur]

The problem is not with Dish or DIRECTV. They are just worried that 1000 stations will put it off until the last minute and there is no way they can redo 1000 stations in a day/week/month. They need stations about 6 months out to make thier signals available to them so that they can go to each local point of reception and change the equipement to pick up the new channel. Remember now they are REQUIRED to carry the analog signal. They cannot carry the digital signal until the local channel tells them they are changing. They do not have the abilty to switch out that much equipment overnight.

Yep. Some may say, why don't they do it now? Because a lot of local channels are using a temporary DT frequency. Dish would have it easy in my DMA as only one channel is moving during the analog cut off. The CBS affiliate is moving from 46 digital to 9(where their analog is now), which is understandable as it's cheaper to use 9. Not to mention the move will be moving towers. Compound that with all the locals and you've got a lot of work in a short window!

 

[Hall]

Interesting thing in an article about this at Multichannel News:

Ergen: No Bandwidth For Dual Must Carry - 9/4/2007 12:46:00 PM - Multichannel News

Under federal law, Dish Network has to carry all local TV stations in a market if it elects to carry even one – also called the “carry one, carry all” requirement.

In its filing, EchoStar didn’t explain how its carry one, carry all obligations permit it to identify which stations in a market are “must carry” and which are not.

Where do smaller, low-power stations fall into this ? Surely there's a limit to what "must" be carried.

 

[rad]

Interesting question, will DBS and cable send out a 16:9 image letterboxed or zoom/crop it to fill out the 4:3 screen? Either way, there's nothing stopping them now from starting to convert their uplink sites from using the NTSC feed to the ATSC feed, something that needs to be done so why wait?

 

[digiblur]

there's nothing stopping them now from starting to convert their uplink sites from using the NTSC feed to the ATSC feed, something that needs to be done so why wait?

Only in the markets where all of the DT signals aren't going to move.