Following up on a blog earlier this year, there’s new information about the fate of low power TV stations after the switchover to digtial broadcasting for full power stations.  A federal appeals court has denied a request from owners of thousands of those low-power television stations that would have banned the government-subsidized converter boxes that went on sale earlier this year.  The LPTV folks complaint is that the boxes cannot display the low power signals, which will still remain mostly in the analog format.

There are a couple of LPTV’s in the central Indiana area:  WALV-TV, owned by the folks that also own Channel 13 and WDNI-TV, owned by the Radio One group, that runs WTLC radio, among others.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Wednesday rejected the request for help filed by the Community Broadcasters Association (CBA). The industry says it’s facing a “death sentence” because of a flaw in the government’s plan to force broadcasters to shift to digital broadcasting. In March the CBA asked the court to order the Federal Communications Commission to ban all digital set-top converter boxes that are not equipped to receive an analog signal. 

Granting of that request would possibly derail the biggest broadcasting transition since color television. As of Feb. 19, 2009, all full-power television stations in the U.S. are required to stop broadcasting an analog signal. Anyone who gets programming through an antenna and does not have a newer-model digital TV set will need to buy a box that converts the digital signal to analog.  Those boxes, in the $50-80 range are on sale at most big box electronics retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City and at other retailers like Wal-Mart.  The government has set up a program that provides two $40 coupons per household that can be used to buy these boxes. (Complete information is available at theINDYchannel.com by clicking on the DTV Answers icon on the home page.)

The problem facing the 2,600 low-power television stations represented by the association is that they are not subject to the February 2009 deadline. Most of the converter boxes now on sale will actually block the low-power analog signal from those stations, while the full-power digital signals will display normally. The appeals court’s decision said the association failed to adequately make its case that the order, known as a “writ of mandamus,” was necessary.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has posted a list of low power stations as well as thousands of signal-relay stations known as translators that will also be affected on its Web site.

A group representing low power television stations is throwing a roadblock into the digital TV transition.  At T minus 328 days, the Community Broadcasters Association says it’s filing a writ of mandamus to prevent prevent “the marketing of DTV converter boxes that block analog signals.”

That would be the vast majority of the boxes certified for the government’s $40 coupon subsidies. Those boxes cannot have an analog tuner per the government’s specifications, and most do not pass through analog signals.

If they’re successful with the suit and halt sales of the converter boxes and somehow force the manufacturing of boxes that pass analog signals, they’ll really throw a monkey wrench into the plan.  As I have mentioned in past blogs, on February 17 of next year, full power television stations will shut off their analog transmitters.  And homes with older sets not hooked to cable, satellite or other service will need a box to convert the TV stations’ digital signal for display on those older sets. 

The CBA is filing the action in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit  “To protect the interests and business of all low-power and class-A [low-power] TV stations that specialize in localism,” according to CBA executive director Amy Brown.

The Federal Communications Commission is in charge of the DTV process, but it gave the National  Telecommunicationa dn Information Administration the authority to certify boxes that the CBA said violate the FCC’s all-channel receive act.

That’s a 1962 law that authorized the FCC to mandate that “all television receivers shipped in interstate commerce, or imported into the United States, for sale or resale to the public be capable of receiving all channels allocated to television broadcasting.”

The CBA has been calling on the FCC to require converter-box manufacturers to make boxes that receive analog signals, as well as digital signals, pointing out that thousands of low-power and translator stations, including some network affiliates and numerous Spanish-language stations, will not convert to digital next February.  The CBA also wants DTV-education campaigns not to shorthand their message by saying that all analog broadcasting will end in February 2009.

And now, another monkey wrench in the gears of the Digital Television Conversion machine.

The Community Broadcasters Association (CBA), a trade group representing more than 2,600 low power TV stations, yesterday asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to declare unlawful any analog-to-digital DTV converters that are not able to pass through analog signals. According to the CBA, any box built without the pass-through feature would violate the All-Channel Receiver Act, a federal law that says that says that all receivers of over-the-air signals must be able to receive all channels.

Most converter boxes that will become available next year will provide the ability to convert only digital signals so they may be seen on older, analog TV sets. As of February 17, 2009 all full-power TV stations, such as WRTV, are mandated to shut off their analog signals (in our case, Channel 6) and broadcast only on their digital channel. WRTV has had both analog and digital signals available for nearly ten years. After the February date, WRTV will broadcast only in digital format and on its current digital assignment, Channel 25.

Manufacturers are producing analog-to-digital converters for the tens of millions of analog TV sets now in use that are not hooked up to either cable or satellite and rely solely on over-the-air reception. Most of the converters are being made to specifications set forth by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) so that they qualify for the government’s $40 discount coupons. The NTIA specs permit the pass-through feature, but do not make it mandatory. Some boxes have the feature; some do not, the CBA says. CBA notes that it is aware of only two companies, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Echostar, that plan to offer DTV converter boxes with the pass-through capability

The CBA sees the pass-through feature as critical to low-power TV stations and translators since many of them will continue broadcasting analog signals long after the cut-off of analog by full power stations. They feel the converter boxes that don’t pass analog LPTV signals will confuse viewers and significantly decrease LPTV viewership. LPTVs for the most part do not have must-carry rights on cable systems and depend on our over-the-air signal for the majority of their audiences.

Greg Herman, vice president for technology for the CBA, says the group intends to hold manufacturers and the FCC accountable for any lost viewers and all lost revenues.”“Our industry does not want to stop the converter box program, but by not correcting this problem the Consumer Electronics Association and FCC have forced us into submitting this filing,” Herman says.”“It will be substantially less expensive to correct this problem now instead of recalling 70 million boxes and paying our industries lost revenues later.”