Are you ready? Digital TV switch ended Friday night
— -- The USA has spent the better part of a decade preparing for the big switch to digital TV, which concludes Friday night.
Now what?
Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps says consumers won't have to wait long to see the magic of digital technology, which holds promise for TV, wireless and emergency communications.
The upshot: "We're going from the Dinosaur Age to the Digital Age," the FCC chief says.
The most immediate impact will be in the area of free TV. For over-the-air TV viewers, there will be "lots more channels and better pictures," Copps says. Sound quality also improves.
What this means: If you're among the 20 million homes that receive TV signals exclusively over the air, you could see a dramatic bump in the number of channels you get. Some will likely be broadcast in high-definition, or HD, which offers images so crisp, they look 3-D. (Analog TVs won't morph into HD units, they'll just get better pictures.)
The increase is due to the efficiency of digital technology, which can pack a lot of programming into the space formerly occupied by a single analog channel.
How much more? If you had 10 analog channels, you could wind up with as many as 60 digital channels over time, all free. These "multicast" offerings show up as "subchannels" — 7.1, 7.2 and so on.
As in the analog world, TV stations can use their digital bits any way they want. That opens myriad opportunities, says former AOL executive Bob Pittman.
"When you look at the number of TV stations out there, you have almost unlimited possibilities of ideas to try," says Pittman, who now runs The Pilot Group, which has 21 TV stations in 15 markets.
"Somebody's going to do something that makes you say, 'Wow, I didn't even think of that,' " Pittman says. "To me, the big idea is the one that's going to come out of nowhere."
Near term, however, more traditional fare will probably dominate, he says.
"If you ask what's the most important thing about a local TV station, it's local news, information and weather," he says. "You'll find some doubling up on that (sort of fare), so people have more opportunities to watch at their convenience."
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