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Delaying DTV deadline compounds complexity of transition

Jan 15, 2009 8:28 AM, By Phil Kurz

In some ways, the DTV transition is an elaborate, choreographed dance requiring broadcasters to plan their steps carefully to ensure finite resources in high demand, such tower and transmitter crews, are available at the right time to minimize temporary reductions in service while final preparations are made. (Image: Dielectric Communications)

Last week’s request from the incoming Obama Administration to Congress that the Feb. 17 DTV deadline be postponed to allow more time for over-the-air households to prepare has sent a wave of emotion throughout many in the broadcast engineering community ranging from surprise to sullen resignation.

While few welcome “the prospect of leaving millions in the dark,” as Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), a member of the House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, put it last week when reacting to the request, the consequences of delaying the transition for broadcasters are numerous and complicated.

“I think it (a delay) will blow up the whole transition from a technical point of view,” said Sterling Davis, Cox Broadcasting vice president of engineering. “This whole thing has been set up for a couple of years with elaborate planning. There are so many moving parts already in progress that it will be impossible to shift the date and have the scheduling hold. Period.”

Those moving parts involve a variety of finite industry resources, including tower crews and transmitter crews, as well as contractual agreements between stations and the companies providing those crews, and in some instances stations and the owners of the towers to which their antennas are mounted.

“We have worked in our market and adjacent markets to maximize these resources of crews so they can move from market to market in a coordinated way,” said Ardell Hill, senior vice president of broadcast operations at Media General. “Together we have taken into account coordinating equipment delivery, weather conditions, crew availability. Once that domino falls (a delay), the consequences ripple out in all directions.”

According to Hill, since word spread last week that President-elect Barack Obama had asked for a delay, some vendors of these services have been on the phone in a near panic. “There is recognition that contracts were signed months ago,” he said. “The vendors want to know if we are thinking we are just going to walk away from the contracts. The bottom line is it’s almost crisis in nature, the way some of my vendors are responding.” Hill added that there is no intention on the part of Media General to break any such contracts.

Some broadcasters even paid a premium more than a year ago to be at the front of the line for tower crew services for the February transition date, said John Mckay, manager broadcast sales at Radian, an Ontario-based, provider of tower crews. “Now all that is thrown out of the window because the time frame is moved,” he said.

Another related consequence of a delay is renegotiating tower leases. “In a couple of markets, I have to extend tower leases,” said Hill. “I have a signed contract. If I stay on the air (in analog from those towers), I have to renegotiate with that tower owner. I am across a barrel, not because he wants to take advantage of me but because he already has a new client ready to take that space once we get off.”

To complete the transition, many stations have postponed final transmitter work until the weeks immediately preceding the Feb. 17 deadline. The delay is understandable because this work directly impacts their bread and butter by reducing coverage area.

According to Dielectric Communications vice president of sales and marketing Roger Cote, many broadcasters have set up temporary analog transmitting facilities authorized to operate at reduced power to maintain their analog signal while work is completed on their final, full-power digital transmission infrastructure.

As originally planned, this work will coincide with the weeks leading up to the transition to minimize the effect of cutting off portions of the analog audience from reception due to reducing analog facilities, Cote said. With about one month to go before the scheduled transition deadline, many broadcasters are entering this final phase. However, if the DTV deadline is postponed, the few weeks of reduced analog service could extend into several months, a financial blow to stations already suffering from the effects of the recession.