The impact on television stations of the transition from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting has caused most TV stations to go into a frenzy about changing to digital. By the year 2006, all analog TV will have switched to digital transition. Viewers will either have new DTV sets or digital converters for old analog sets.

an HDTV camera

What is the cost?

TV stations face digital conversion costs that are anywhere from around 2 million dollars for a station that does nothing else but transmit national programs or 6 million dollars for a facility that can produce it's own programs. Total cost for all stations is about 1.7 billion dollars, which is the entire annual income for public television and public radio combined and will be spent in the next 4 or 5 years. The most important thing that the TV stations have to do is take a "can do" attitude about the conversion situation.

How is this being promoted?

PBS, in conjunction with Harris Corp., will be touring the country in an 18 wheeler, 53 foot, double expanded truck that plans to stop in 40 cities to promote DTV to local press, legislature, and other state officials. PBS will also work with TOMCAST'S COMARK DIGITAL SERVICES on DTV transition plans along with the Harris Corporation. PBS wants to insure a natural smooth path to the transition.

Currently the public is not all that interested in HDTV. But television stations are working to get that to change. The stations are trying to get the public to realize that HDTV is so much better. Stations are working with retailers to help promote HDTV. At specified times, you can go to a TV store like Best Buy or H'H' Gregg and view a HDTV broadcast there. The stations and the store have set up the digital TV and the broadcast to show the difference between traditional TV and the new HDTV.

What is the government's Role? While the White House is the one who is pushing for this change, they are offering little help. The government expects television stations to cover half of the costs. Federal and private sector fundraising will compensate the other half. Stations also look to the state level government for financial aide: results vary between states. The CPB (Central Public Broadcasting) initially sought 771 million dollars for aid to help with the transition, which is about 45% of total cost estimation, but only received 600 million. However, the Gore panel will try writing rules for Digital TV's 'wild west'.