The MoPR Blog

Brace yourselves; the television world is about to change forever.  But the truth?  You probably won’t even notice, mainly because nearly 85 percent of Americans have nothing to do but sit back and be blissfully ignorant when the change happens.  Still, that means roughly 20 million American homes will have to prepare for the Digital TV transition. You haven’t heard about the DTV revolution? Let us give you a brief run down.

Coming in February 2009, analog television signals will be shut off and all over-the-air broadcasters will deliver their broadcasts digitally.  Small, local stations, as well as the local affiliate stations of popular networks like ABC, NBC, and PBS will no longer be available through the rabbit ears on your TV or the antenna on your roof.

So why the switch?  Well, digital TV is a significantly more efficient way to broadcast.  The transition to an all-digital signal will free up the spectrum currently used for analog TV. Yahoo! produced a guide to the transition explaining why it’s a necessary change stating that:

“The same amount of bandwidth holds a lot more information digitally than in an analog system. Stations can decide to use the bandwidth to broadcast in HDTV or to broadcast using enhanced services like interactive TV, or they can transmit multiple programs over the same signal (called multicasting).”

So who needs to prepare for the switch?  If you get your TV from a cable, phone or satellite company you don’t need to worry! This won’t affect you.  But if you still rely on rabbit ears or a rooftop antenna you will have to either purchase a new digital television or a converter box that will take the new digital TV signals and convert them to the analog format your trusty old analog TV set understands.  Pretty expensive, right?  Well, only if you opt for the new TV route.  If you do choose to purchase a converter box, which is estimated to cost about $50-70, the government is offering coupons in order to defer the cost.  (Coupons will run at about $40 each).

The US is certainly not the first to make this dramatic switch . The Netherlands was the first to convert back in December 2006 to an all digital broadcast.  Following are Australia, Sweden and the European Union which plans for all member states to switch off their analog signals by 2012.

The biggest problem being predicted right now is the lack of knowledge about the change.  With over 60% of US households clueless about the transition, commercials and public announcements have been in over drive, attempting to inform the mystified public.  So be prepared to see lots of hype until the final change coming in February. And take one more look at your television.  Do you have cable and/or a digital television?  Or are you still getting free channels through rabbit ears on an antenna?  Double check. Because you don’t want to miss out on any must see TV!