Digital transition may delete millions of viewers
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LOS ANGELES  - A year from Sunday, television for many Americans will cut to black. Analog signals will stop transmitting, older sets will become useless and millions of TV-watching households will simply disappear.
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By TOBY STERLING  AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The Netherlands ended transmission of "free to air" analog television Monday, becoming the first nation to switch completely to digital signals.  Few Dutch consumers noticed, because the overwhelming majority get TV via cable.
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The switch from analog to digital TV broadcasts will be complete in just one year, on Feb. 17, 2009, and many consumers are puzzling over how the shift will affect them. What exactly do they need to make the transition?
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'Vertical integration' and cross-promotion in the TV landscape is prompting calls to limit media consolidation.
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Viewership drops, and networks aren't able to deliver on advertisers' expectations. But will the strike be settled soon?
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The company responsible for introducing millions of people to the Internet is poised to undergo a transformation that would likely accelerate its decline as a gatekeeper of access to the information superhighway.
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Internet access could be cut for people who illegally download music and videos  under government proposals.
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NEW YORK  - Nielsen Media Research has estimated that more than 13 million U.S. households are ill-prepared for the digital TV conversion next year.
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Will Canada be able to keep up with the transition to digital television? Faced with the impending obsolescence of US-based analog television, Canada's broadcasters must decide how -- or whether -- to continue expensive transmitter upgrades to meet the requirements of the digital era.
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The name of Court TV is getting disbarred.
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Nearly half of people who regularly watch online video spend less time watching TV, a survey suggests.
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(InfoWorld) - A group of broadcasters, consumer electronics vendors, and civil rights groups pledged Wednesday to leave no television viewers behind as the U.S. transitions to digital over-the-air broadcasts by February 2009. The groups, collectively known as the Digital Television Transition Coalition, will use a variety of means, including public service announcements and community-based campaigns,Â to educate TV viewers about the transition from analog broadcasts. An estimated 20 million U.S. homes, containing 90 million TV sets, that don't have cable or satellite service will need to buy converter boxes or new TV sets to continue to receive over-the-air digital broadcasts. People with analog TV sets will no longer receive over-the-air signals after the Feb. 17, 2009, deadline. Congress has approved $1.5 billion for vouchers for residents to buy converter boxes in a bill passed last year. The bill requires U.S. TV stations to move off radio spectrum in the upper 700MHz band with that highly coveted spectrum going to public safety agencies and commercial bidders. Cable and satellite viewers will not need to buy converter boxes or new TVs. Starting this week, all television sets shipped across state lines in the U.S. must be capable of receiving a digital signal. "Part of our job ... will to be to help many people understand that, while they may think they have a problem, in reality, they are already well equipped to deal with the transition and enjoy the benefits," said Marc Pearl, executive director of the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition. "It is essential that nobody loses a TV signal due to a lack of accurate information." Many of the people affected by the transition will be poor or elderly people, said Nancy Zirkin, vice president and director of public policy at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. The coalition needs to "make sure that this audience knows before the switch that they are eligible for federal vouchers," she said. The coalition launched a Web site to help educate TV viewers on the switch to DTV. In a recent survey of over-the-air viewers, the National Association of Broadcasters found that 56 percent of respondents reported that they have "seen, read, or heard nothing" about the transition to digital television, and only 10 percent were able to pinpoint 2009 as the year. The upper 700MHz band would allow wireless signals to travel four to five times as far as existing mobile phone signals, advocates of the digital televisionÂ transition say. That makes the spectrum valuable for mobile broadband providers and for police and fire departments that want to communicate with regional counterparts. Among the coalition members are the Association of Public Television Stations, the Consumer Electronics Association, and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
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Minimising interference Existing digital television services could be affected by the national switchover to all-digital television, Ofcom has warned.â¦
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Nielsen Media Research has  estimated that more than 13 million U.S. households are  ill-prepared for the digital TV conversion next year.
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Larry Weber thinks people may be surprised how quickly interactive and digital marketing is cutting into broadcast.
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A group of broadcasters, consumer electronics vendors, and civil rights groups pledged Wednesday to leave no television viewers behind as the U.S. transitions to digital over-the-air broadcasts by February 2009.
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Â· Ofcom urges rethink of broadcaster's remit  Â· Cash help needed to plug Â£100m digital black hole