[IP] Wilmington, NC to test "total" analog TV cutoff

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Date: May 8, 2008 10:32:33 AM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: lauren@vortex.com
Subject: Wilmington, NC to test "total" analog TV cutoff


Dave,

In conjunction with the FCC, it appears that Wilmington, North
Carolina (135th largest TV market in U.S.) will shut down all but
one of their analog TV signals starting Sept. 8, instead of waiting
for next February.  The idea is to test people's reactions and
awareness of the DTV transition.

While this seems like a good idea, I'll note two issues.  First, the
local PBS broadcaster declined to participate in this early analog
shutdown, noting that they felt it important that at least one
analog station be up during this period in case of emergency.  This
seems utterly sensible.  One wonders why the FCC apparently didn't
themselves mandate this.

Secondly, since there is no doubt going to be extremely intense,
localized publicity in the Wilmington area regarding the shutdown, I
wonder how broadly the results of this experiment can really be
applied to the national landscape, where even now announcements
about the DTV transition are relatively few and far between (and
ironically, seem to mostly be on cable channels, where they are
least needed!)

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
  - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com




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