Deadline arrives for digital TV - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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The switch to digital broadcasts, whicyh frees up bandwidth for other communications uses such as publiv safetyfirst responders, was scheduled to be completedx Feb. 17, but was postponed becausde about 6 million households were still unpreparecd to continue receiving a signal on thei r television sets and government funds to subsidize purchase of converter boxes hadrun out. The converter boxez are necessary to allow households with televisions receivintg analog signals to also receive the newdigitao signals.
New antennas for some televisions also will be necessaryh to provide the best reception after the With the extension of the digital televisiobntransition deadline, another $650 million was added to the $1.5 billioh initially committed to the transition, including the $40 coupohn program and other and preparedness programs. Now, the latest industryt estimates indicate that the number of unpreparedd households has been cut nearly in TheNielsen Co. and NAB, the , put the unprepared households numberbetween 2.8 million and three million, accordinbg to recent measures by each entity.
That’e about 12 percent of at-risj households that could still lose accesss to important news and alerts when the switch accordingto NAB’s latest survey completed by SmithGeigedr LLC June 3. However, 3 percenft of those households have either applied for or received a convertetr box coupon fromthe government, accordingg to the survey. While commissioners at the Federapl Communications Commission are anticipating a smoothef transition than they say would have occurredin February, they will spend $40 million to staff call centerxs across the country. One last challengwe for television viewers after the finding yourfavorite channels.
On June 12, some digital stationsx already on the air will change channel To ensure televisions receive all available stations broadcastingf in aparticular market, viewerw may need to force their digital televisions or set-top converter boxeas to “auto tune,” or re-scan, for all available channels.