Well we all wrote off the US digital changeover as a thumping great success. Obama’s administration came in, delayed the analog TV switch off date by four months and everyone was happy. Wrong.
The FCC reported this week that the number of people who have called in since June 6th asking for help, is approaching 1 million. So far there have been 900,000 but although the call volume is falling, the phones are still busy. The outreach number was 1-888-CALL-FCC and it peaked on the Friday with over 317,450 calls, and they then halved on Saturday and halved again on the Sunday to around 63,000 calls. The FCC’s DTV web site also had over 3.5 million page views from June 6 -14.
The FCC reported that 28% of callers wanted help setting up their digital converter box, another 26% had a problem with one particular station and a further 23% needed help resolving broader reception issues. Around 235,000 calls were passed over to the NTIA to ask about its converter box coupon program. Never underestimate the number of people who after three years of warnings, including TV adverts, and documentary programs, come home one night, switch their TV on and think it’s broken.
‘The FCC is in the midst ‘ not the end ‘ of the DTV transition,’ said FCC Acting Chairman Michael Copps. ‘Our call center remains open, our teams are in the field, and our web site, www.dtv.gov, is updated to reflect the kinds of problems viewers are having.
‘This was never going to be an easy transition, as I have said many times,’ Copps added. ‘It appears to have worked well for the majority of over-the-air viewers, but for those who are experiencing a less-satisfactory outcome, we are committed to staying on the job to help.’
In other countries there are still reception issues for DTV four or five years after service launch on some stations, so the US has lots of issues to work through here and antenna amplifiers will be going up all over the US, we’re sure.
Apparently many of the problems happened because people diligently tuned their boxes in long before the June 6 deadline and the channel locations changed and re-scanning just didn’t work on some devices. The FCC is looking into signal loss of certain stations in several key markets like Chicago, Philadelphia and New York.