PPH Testimony on DTV

Written by Joshua Breitbart Tuesday, 24 March 2009 12:31

Testimony of Joshua Breitbart, Policy Director of People's Production House before the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding the Digital Television Transition on July 18th, 2008 in Brooklyn New York.

July 18, 2008-Thank you for convening this hearing on this important subject. My name is Joshua Breitbart. I am the Policy Director for People's Production House, a national nonprofit organization that works locally in New York City, Washington DC, and the Gulf Coast. We provide a comprehensive media education to low income families, immigrants, and youth, on topics including the DTV transition.

I am also a technology columnist for Gotham Gazette. In this capacity, I am called on to explain new developments in communications policy and technology to the general public. I am attaching my column on the digital television transition, "Counting Down to the Great Television Turnover."

I should add that my interest is not merely professional. I am also a third generation native of Brooklyn and I watch free, over-the-air broadcast television. Through the acquisition of a used, but digital-ready television, I recently made the transition to receiving digital broadcasts. It has not been a smooth ride.

When I receive the digital signal, the viewing experience is vastly superior to an analog signal. However, to tune a digital signal with rabbit ears is a challenge. Because the digital signal is either on or off, as opposed to analog signals that can vary in clarity, I cannot see what it is I'm trying to tune into. Getting reception involves not simply bending the rabbit ears up and down, but actually moving the antenna around the room. By placing the antenna by the window, I seem to be able to pick up the local stations that are currently broadcasting digitally, including WNBC (the NBC affiliate, on channels 4.1, 4.2, and 4.4) and WNYW (the Fox affiliate, on channels 5.1 and 5.2).

The digital signal is easily disrupted. My signal goes out when a helicopter flies overhead. My downstairs neighbor's digital signal goes out when a truck drives up the block or when someone opens the metal door to the house. Cellular phone calls also seem to have an effect. Overall, the transition has been and continues to be a process of trial and error.

Since WCBS, WABC, WPIX, and WNET are not, to the best of my knowledge, currently transmitting digitally, I cannot know if I will be able to watch these stations after February 17, 2009. I am concerned that I may have to install a rooftop antenna to do so, but that I will not know for sure until winter, which is not the best time to be installing equipment on a roof. Of course, all of these upgrades and installations have been at my household's expense.

I am fortunate enough to be able to afford this equipment and to have the know-how and physical ability to work through my problems, which so far have proven solvable. I am also privileged to have other ways of accessing news and information, such as through the Internet. However, I am greatly concerned that many of my neighbors and millions more people across the country will not be so lucky. 

According to Centris, the media research firm, New York City has the highest number of households at risk for losing television channels through the DTV transition of any designated market area in the country. Surprisingly, Centris locates many of the most at risk tracts in Manhattan, where tall buildings and cavernous streets create a challenging environment for digital transmission.

Many OTA households are also in the outer boroughs. Their risk is heightened by non-topological factors. As the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) has documented in their report, Transition in Trouble: Action Needed to Ensure a Successful Digital Television Transition, OTA households with incomplete knowledge about the DTV transition are more likely to be low-income, speak English as a second language or not at all, include seniors, and/or include people with physical disabilities.

The current process to manage the DTV transition is inadequate. Congress, which mandated the transition, and the regulatory agencies overseeing it need to take immediate action to ensure Americans see the full benefits from digital television. LCCR recommends several sensible action items in their report. I would like to add a few more for your consideration:

1. Regulatory agencies and elected officials need to educate the public about the need some viewers will have for an antenna upgrade – from set-top to rooftop, or from passive to powered – in addition to a converter box or television upgrade to continue receiving television broadcasts after the transition.

2. Households should be allowed to spend the government-sponsored coupons on antennas.

3. The federal government should monitor multichannel video programming distributors (cable or satellite companies) for spikes in subscriptions in the months around the transition. Increases in revenue that result from the transition should be subject to a windfall tax to fund unanticipated expenses, such as those recommended by LCCR.

In addition to deserving a smooth transition to digital, the public should receive the full benefits from the completed transition. Clearer picture and sound are great, but digital broadcasting holds much more significant promises. As technology advances, we can move from a regulatory regime based on scarcity with access restricted to only a few license holders to one based on abundance where millions of Americans can share in the benefits of our public airwaves. Here are two specific examples:

1. Open channels, the unused portion of the television band known as “white spaces,” should be provided for unlicensed use as recommended by the Wireless Innovation Alliance.

2. Public interest obligations for commercial television broadcasters should increase as their channel capacity increases, including requirements for educational, informational, and locally-produced programming. 

3. Public television broadcasters should have community media set-asides for local residents to get on the air. The federal government should undertake to increase community media capacity through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting or other agency. For example, these agencies could provide one-time block grants to existing community access organizations to upgrade to digital production or broadcast equipment that would be interoperable with the local public television stations.

No one would be happy to endure a loss of channels or picture for the promised benefit of more channels and clearer picture. But for long-lasting benefits such as these, the American public would tolerate the problems they are sure to face in February.

Thank you again for holding a hearing on this important matter. Please contact me if you have any questions or if we can be of service on this matter. People's Production House is eager to do its part to ensure a smooth transition to digital television and to secure the full benefits of digital broadcasting for us all.