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The corporate crystal ball
is being no help in determining if the digital
transition/analog shut off will take place on February
17 as originally planned, or if the date will be
changed. By the time you read this, the decision will
likely have been made, but as I write this in
mid-January, we really don’t know what will happen.
One sure change that will take place, but on February 2,
will be a new program lineup on digital channel 47, and
a lot of new, exciting content worthy of your attention.
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Channel 47.1 will become our main channel, high
definition service. The regular WTVP program
schedule will continue on this channel, but in HD.
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Channel 47.2 will premiere a new service called
WORLD, a 24 hour channel featuring the best of
Public Television’s news, public affairs and related
programming.
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Channel 47.3 will continue the CREATE service.
Both 47.2 and 47.3 will be
broadcast in standard definition. All three of these
WTVP multicast services are available off-air at no
charge and commercial free. Additional information on
these services can be found throughout this month’s
guide.
Back to the February 17
discussion: We are concerned that everyone who wants to
can have access to a television signal. If it takes a
short while longer to straighten out the coupon program
and give consumers more time to access digital signals,
so be it. But let’s get to it, get it done, and not
penalize the consumers and the stations who have already
prepared for the transition.
Someone asked me what the
costs of delay might be. To consumers the cost will be
measured in time, trouble, confusion and uncertainty. In
real costs, moving the transition back to a date such as
June 30 will cost WTVP approximately $7,000 per month in
unbudgeted power costs – if our aged transmitter can
hold out that long. This is the equivalent of 640 basic
memberships.
All this speculation and
angst may be moot if Congress does not act to change the
transition date. We are planning for many contingencies,
including complete failure of our aging analog
transmitter, but then, as the old adage goes: “Men plan,
God laughs.”
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