Ahead of the Bell: Digital TV

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and others will testify before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on broadcasters' preparations for the Feb. 18 switch as well as plans for the Wilmington, N.C., TV market to be the first to make the flip.

The FCC last month announced that five Wilmington stations would make the transition in September as a way to identify any problems before other markets make the switch. About 93 percent of the market's households subscribe to cable or satellite TV, while only 7 percent still watch over-the-air programming.

TV viewers who get their programming through an antenna and have an older TV set will need to buy a box that converts the digital signal to analog. An estimated 21 million households--or about 19 percent of the nation--rely on an antenna, according to government report issued in 2005.

The federal government is providing two $40 coupons per household that can be used to buy these boxes. International Business Machines Corp. was awarded a contract to oversee consumer education of the $1.5 billion coupon program.

The subcommittee will also discuss an April report from the Government Accountability Office that said TV stations "have made substantial progress" in the transition.

About 91 percent of the 1,122 full-power stations that responded to a survey are currently transmitting a digital signal, according to the GAO report. But the report also said that some stations need to resolve various technical, coordination and other issues before the transition is complete.

Representatives from IBM, retailer RadioShack Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., and other government and private-sector entities are also scheduled to testify before the subcommittee, which has held several hearings on the status of the digital TV transition.