Digital Television

Digital television (DTV) enables television to offer consumers better picture and sound quality, expanded programming choices (such as multiple [Page 420]channels of programs at a time), and enhanced closed captioning and interactive video options. By the early 2000s, digital television was having a growing impact on traditional television journalism by expanding the types of programming through multiplexing, changing how journalists appear on camera by modifying makeup techniques and improving news sets to hide imperfections, and modifying traditional camera angles and lighting techniques to hide flaws due to digital clarity.

In use since 1941, analog television displayed a picture with a 4:3 aspect ratio while digital television uses a 16:9 aspect ratio. The latter is similar to widescreen theatrical films and allows consumers to play DVD movies in their original wide-screen formats without the letterbox, or black bars, at the top and bottom of the screen. Digital television also utilizes Dolby Digital sound which provides consumers with CD-quality audio.

Improved systems of television were discussed by the Department of Defense in the 1970s as a means of improving the visual resolution of military equipment. In the 1980s, some viewed digital television as a means to regain American consumer electronics market dominance. The first digital systems were modeled on computers in 1990, and in field testing by 1993. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 required the adoption of digital television technology by broadcasters working with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The original date established by the FCC for television stations to broadcast only with digital signals was in May 2002, but due to many technical problems, few digital receivers in consumer hands, and complaints from broadcasters the date was pushed back. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 set February 17, 2009, as the date analog television signals would end; this date was later pushed back to June 12 of the same year out of concern that too many people were still not ready for the transition. Broadcasters and the government picked up their promotional efforts over the four months, and most viewers made it through the transition fine. As of that date, consumers required either a digital television receiver, digital cable or satellite service, or a digital-to-analog converter box to receive digital television signals. Television set manufacturers stopped making analog sets two years earlier.

U.S. government television transition policy focused on the millions of television homes using off-air television reception, or those not served by cable or satellite carriers. Converter boxes were made available to consumers to convert digital signals for compatibility with analog television sets. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) offered coupons to help offset the costs of purchasing converter boxes. The transition to digital television has been costly for stations, with some spending nearly 60 percent of their annual budgets on digital equipment. WRAL-TV, in Raleigh–Durham, North Carolina, was the first station to obtain an FCC license for digital operation and became the first to digitally broadcast from both the studio and in the field. The cost for a new television news set, a digital transmitter, and other required equipment totaled more than $10 million.

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