FCC Chairman Kevin said that the Commissions received about 800 calls from consumers having problems when analog television service was shut down and replaced with digital 9/8/08, and that number was nearly halved the next day, to 424. The total for both days is less than 1% of the 180K households in the market, comprising about 400K viewers. At the end of Day One, a mere 23 of the callers said they were caught unawares.
“While we believe that the transition in Wilmington is going smoothly, the measure of success in Wilmington is what is going to happen next February, and what we are able to learn from this experience and how we apply those lessons as we move this effort across the country,” Chairman Martin said.
Many callers experienced difficulty getting converter boxes hooked up; others had reception problems, many related to antennae; and many specifically lost reception of Raycom’s NBC WECT-TV. Some, said the FCC, were able to get the analog version but were out of range of the new digital signal, and in many cases, these viewers have access to other NBC affiliates, particularly viewers actually resident to the south in the Myrtle Beach DMA, and even as far north as Raleigh.
FCC BREAKDOWN OF CONSUMER CALLS
NOT AWARE OF THE TRANSITION
They were not aware of the switch to DTV: 9
They were unaware of the correct transition date: 5
They did not think the stations they watch would switch to digital: 9
Subtotal: 23
AWARE BUT DID NOT ACT
They forgot to upgrade: 24
They were unable to attain assistance to upgrade: 4
They relied on another member of their household to upgrade: 3
They waited too long to buy or set up a digital set or a converter box: 31
They were out of town or too busy or knew they could do it later: 5
Subtotal: 67
PROBLEMS WITH THE CONVERTER BOX COUPON PROGRAM
A coupon did not arrive in time: 27
Wanted coupon or had not received coupon from NTIA: 59
The retail store was out of boxes: 1
Subtotal: 87
INITIAL DIFFICULTY WITH THEIR CONVERTER BOXES
Setting up converter boxes was too hard: 27
They didn’t understand the instructions for the digital set or the converter box: 34
Their converter box "didn’t work": 100
Subtotal: 161
RECEPTION AND TECHNICAL PROBLEMS
Their antenna didn’t work/no antenna/antenna wasn’t connected: 33
Problem with channel or call sign: 85
Weak or spotty signal: 60
Subtotal: 178
NOT RECEIVING WILMINGTON SIGNALS
Problem with channel or call sign: 232
Subtotal: 232
OTHER PROBLEMS
Satellite subscribers to Dish/Direct TV – did not subscribe to local package: 22
They thought all their sets were hooked up to cable or satellite: 14
They were waiting for cable or satellite installation: 6
Wanted DTV consumer information sent to them: 7
Subtotal: 49
Total: 797
Source: FCC
