In 1988 Japan announced a new TV viewing standard, High Definition. Just like that a new technology race was born and Japan was the undisputed leader. America had nothing like it and billions of dollars were at stake. At the same time another technology was exploding – wireless, or as it was called at the time, land mobile. Wireless device manufacturing companies led by Motorola, were clamoring for more spectrum on the airwaves. This is the invisible superhighway that wireless signals travel on. Wireless signals share the airwaves with TV and radio frequencies and there is a finite range of frequencies that can accommodate these vital signals.
Meanwhile, think back to when radio, and later TV, became available in the US. In 1934 the government created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate the distribution of the airwave spectrum so signals would not interfere with each other. TV and radio companies were given this spectrum at no cost as long as they did not charge the consumer to view or listen to these transmissions. Fast-forward to the 80s as new wireless technologies such as pagers and mobile phones came onto the scene. The FCC began auctioning off available spectrum to the highest bidder, since the wireless companies profited from the new services.
As more and more wireless services came to the market, available spectrum became scarce and the prices paid at spectrum auctions became quite lucrative for the government. The FCC knew the TV broadcasters had much more spectrum allocated to them in the early days than they were using, so the FCC let it be known that they would be taking some of it back. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), realizing how valuable the spectrum they owned had become, did not want to give any of it up. With a strong lobby in Washington they began to devise a way to hang onto their coveted spectrum. HDTV gave them the perfect excuse.
The NAB argued that they needed the spectrum to bring HDTV to America and they could not afford to lose any spectrum because this new HDTV signal required much more bandwidth, or lanes on the spectrum superhighway, than the existing analog TV signal required. This seemed like the perfect argument, and it was. The only problem was, they did not have an HDTV system. They didn’t even have anything on the drawing boards.
Since there were millions of dollars at stake, Congress and the FCC did not just take the broadcasters at their word. They set benchmarks and deadlines for broadcasters to launch HDTV. It became a long and arduous journey throughout the 90s with many companies vying to get their format approved to become the American HDTV standard. Deadlines came and went, and so did leadership at the FCC. Finally, in the late 90s a new standard was adopted. It was called the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC). It would be based on digital technology which would allow the signal to be compressed which would save space or spectrum.
The new digital broadcast system would require a complete revamping of the broadcast industry. Everything would need to be replaced: towers, transmitters, cameras and of course televisions. To view the new signal the consumer would need to replace their televisions, or at the very least buy a set top conversion box. The FCC realized that this was going to take some time, not only for the broadcasters to upgrade their equipment but for the manufacturers to come up with an affordable set top box for consumers who could not afford to just go out and buy a new digital TV. The FCC set a benchmark of $100 for the set top box.
Since the new standard called for a digitally compressed signal this would help the FCC’s original goal of getting some spectrum back from the broadcasters. (Remember how this all started?) But the NAB had another argument. They still would not be able to give up any spectrum until the complete conversion to digital was complete, since they needed to simultaneously broadcast both analog and digital signals. The FCC concurred and a date was set to make the conversion to digital. This meant that the analog signal would be turned off for good and non-digital sets would cease to work unless they were outfitted with a set top conversion box.
The original conversion date was set at mid-2004. Since that date was set it has become a moving target with the latest conversion date being Feb 16, 2009, over twenty years since the whole debate began in 1988! This date seems to be pretty certain for now, but I’m not betting the farm on it. Our advice? Stayed tuned!
Condensed from Defining Definition: How Broadcasters Lured the Government into Inciting a Revolution in Television, by Joel Brinkley, 1998.
