Speculation: Will some stations shut off analog regardless of the DTV ruling?
February 4, 2009 by Derek
The House is currently debating the merits of delaying the DTV transition still, but it seems to be a fact that’s unavoidable: some stations are shutting down their analog transmitters regardless of the ruling, if only for financial reasons. Keeping two transmitters going is expensive, and the bottom line dictates the change stay Feb. 17th.
Broadcast Engineering interviewed WTVP-TV in Peoria, Illinois and the manager claims the station will save $7 – $10k every month in power costs, and has stated they will switch over on the Feb. date regardless. Two other stations in that same area, WEEK-TV and WHOI-TV have gone on record to say they will switch before the June date (assuming they’re permitted) regardless.
The current bill is rumored to contain a compromise that will allow certain stations to switch early if they wish to, and we assume for now that is still in the bill circulating in the House now. If that is the case, we can safely predict 50% of stations will switch early, if not on the Feb 17th date, and maybe more.
We hope the house makes up their mind soon on the fate of this bill. We’ll cover it, whatever happens, of course.
