Testimony on DTV before City Council

Written by Joshua Breitbart Tuesday, 24 March 2009 12:35

Testimony of Joshua Breitbart, Policy Director of People's Production House before the New York City Council Committee on Technology in Government regarding the Digital Television Transition

November 24, 2008

My name is Joshua Breitbart. I am the Policy Director for People's Production House. People's Production House provides young people, immigrants, and low-wage workers with a comprehensive education for the information age, combining media production, media literacy and media policy. We work in public schools and with community organizations in all five boroughs. We also support policies that increase opportunities for members of the public to participate in local journalism.

People’s Production House submitted testimony on the digital television transition to a Brooklyn field hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in July, attended by Representatives Ed Towns and Yvette Clarke. Rather than repeat our analysis of and recommendations for the role of the federal government in this process, I have attached that testimony to my written comments. I have also attached an article I wrote for Gotham Gazette in February 2008 titled, "Counting Down to the Great Television Turnover," on the impact of the digital television transition on New York City.

I would like to focus in these comments on what this body could do to ensure a successful DTV transition here in New York. I am happy to report that many local organizations have already come together to take collective action on this important issue. So far, I have seen cooperation among the nonprofit sector, the broadcasters, and the relevant city agencies. City Council and the Mayor can support these efforts in a number of ways, including through outreach, funding, oversight, and consumer protection.

Local outreach efforts

In August, Manhattan Neighborhood Network hosted and broadcasted a panel, “Alternate Perspectives on the DTV Transition,” that included Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report, Lawrence Carter-Long from the Disabilities Network of New York, Joel Kelsey from Consumers Union, and myself, moderated by MNN’s Devorah Hill.

In September, the Harlem Consumer Education Council (HCEC) organized an outreach event at the Adam Clayton Powell building on 125th Street that included People’s Production House, Consumers Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the FCC, Friends of Thirteen, and Radio Shack.

HCEC and Friends of Thirteen convened a meeting in October to discuss ways to cooperate in community outreach on the transition. The attendees of this meeting offer a sense of how widespread the sense of commitment to this issue is. Commissioner Paul Cosgrave of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications participated in the meeting; FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein called in. The New York Community Media Alliance was there; any plan to reach OTA TV viewers must include their network of dozens of ethnic newspapers. Common Cause New York and the Association For Maximum Service Television also participated.

I want to commend PBS for producing the educational video, "Getting Ready for DTV," and useful, accompanying documents. And Friends of Thirteen is taking great steps to train “DTV volunteers” to aid seniors and others in making the transition.

In New York, local government, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector need to come together to convene multiple forums around the city. These should be scheduled not at 10:00am on a Monday morning, but at 7:00pm or on the weekends, when working folks can attend. We need to be in all neighborhoods handing out information and answering questions.

The coalition formed by the Harlem Consumers Education Council is moving successfully in this direction. You can help by educating your colleagues on this issue and getting them connected to the coalition and to groups in their districts who can help.

Funding

Last week, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recognized that it has a responsibility to support nonprofit efforts at education and direct assistance. The NTIA granted $2.7 million to the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging to help seniors transition to digital television and another $1.65 million to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF) to help vulnerable populations.

Unfortunately, it seems that none or very little of that money will be spent here in New York, despite the huge number of OTA-dependent households here. LCCREF plans to establish two Digital TV Assistance Centers in seven television markets: Atlanta; Detroit; Minneapolis-St.Paul; Portland, Oregon; San Antonio, Texas; San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland; and Seattle-Tacoma.

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. City Council should seek to have a portion of the NTIA grant money used to help New Yorkers, or request additional federal dollars for that purpose. Barring assistance from the state or federal government, City Council should allocate municipal dollars towards this effort.

I believe we can get a lot done through volunteer assistance and People’s Production House is prepared to continue contributing to these efforts. However, we should recognize that in this situation the nonprofit sector is helping solve a problem created and mismanaged by the federal government. Our government should take responsibility for its actions rather than looking for a handout from the social service sector.

Oversight

The advertising and outreach of WABC and other local broadcasters has been extremely helpful, but it will never reach everyone. Broadcasters and the FCC conducted an all-out blitz in Wilmington, North Carolina, before that city made an early transition to digital-only broadcasting. At the meeting at Friends of Thirteen, Commissioner Adelstein estimated that we could see as many as 40,000 people in need of assistance with the transition in New York City based on the results in Wilmington.

The good news is that 40,000 is the amount of people that call 311 in a single day, so it is an amount of people that our government can help in a direct way. The bad news is that is the amount of people that call 311 in a single day needing help of all kinds from the City. How much of a surge on this issue can 311 handle? This body should help ensure that DoITT is prepared for February, since New Yorkers who seek help from the FCC at that time will probably get a busy signal.

I am happy to report that when I initially called DoITT to ask about the DTV transition, I received useful and accurate information that helped me determine if I needed a converter box and obtain a coupon. I am confident that DoITT is taking steps to increase their readiness; they should have a wider range of prepared answers based on the publicly available data from the Wilmington test regarding which problems were most prevalent.

Broadcasters in our area have begun conducting soft tests of the transition – two minute broadcasts of an alert message over the analog signal only, so recipients know for sure they have a problem. They held the first such test on October 28. I recommend you review the data directly, but the report I saw suggested Brooklyn residents and Spanish speakers were the two groups that requested assistance at the highest rates. In reviewing the data, this Committee should consider if all of the necessary city agencies are doing their part to aid New Yorkers in this transition.

Consumer protection

Another major area where our local government can play a role is in consumer protection. The Department of Consumer Affairs and the Public Advocate should make sure that New Yorkers have the opportunity to purchase the basic $40 converter box. The government-issued coupons for the boxes are for $40, so a similarly priced box is a person’s only hope of making this transition at no cost. Unfortunately, retailers have a financial incentive to sell the higher priced boxes, or to up-sell customers to an expensive, digital-ready television. Many have not even been carrying the lowest-priced converter boxes. We must impress upon them that we expect them to act responsibly, especially in assisting seniors and other vulnerable residents.

Similarly, cable providers have been preying on customers confused by all of this digital talk to compel them to upgrade to digital cable service, which the DTV transition does not require them to do. They have also been moving channels off of their basic packages and onto the digital-only service, cutting value from low-cost subscribers. Time Warner and Cablevision are trying to loosen provisions in their franchise agreements; they have sought extensions of their franchises in lieu of negotiations. The above activities suggest we need tighter controls on cable providers, even after the introduction of a competitive provider in some areas of the city.

Conclusion

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