# FCC Announces DTV Ed. Event



## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

The Federal Communications Commission today announced agenda topics and a
tentative list of speakers for its Digital Television Consumer Education Workshop
to be held Sept. 26 at FCC headquarters in Washington, DC.

The event - designed to "provide an opportunity for all interested parties to jointly
discuss the challenges associated with the upcoming transition and explore ways
to develop coordinated consumer education activities" -- will include a demonstration
of the proposed digital converter box, a panel discussion of the government and
industry's role in facilitating the DTV transition and a consumer interest and advocacy
group roundtable.

Representatives from a range of broadcast and CE organizations including CEA,
the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition, the National Association of Broad-
casters and NCTA among others are scheduled to participate in panels at the
workshop. A live audiocast will be available at the FCC's web site. During the
workshop the public can email questions for the panelists to [email protected].
- _The Evening Bridge_


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

This sounds like one of those "conferences" where everybody there already knows what's going on and they get up and talk to each other while the masses who haven't a clue about HDTV sit at home in their ignorance.

The FCC needs to educate the public, not the lobbyists.

I'm sure there will be a lot of useful info, but useful info is everywhere, except in the hands of the general public.

Something like this should be simulcast on ALL cable, satellite and OTA channels in prime time all at once, so you have to turn the TV off to miss it.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Jim5506,

just as there are challenges for the public there are also challenges for the content providers. The transition to HD will pay off in time, but in the short run, broadcasters have to pay millions of dollars to transition to digital broadcasting even if they don't run a single minute of HD. 

If I read this right, this is a conference for the industry leaders to try to make sure that the transition to digital TV is smooth, so those millions of dollars aren't wasted. 

I'm sure at some level the proceeding will be public, but I bet that for all but the most geeky of TV geeks (and I count myself in that list) it would be a big bore.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Stuart Sweet said:


> ...The transition to HD will pay off in time, but in the short run, broadcasters have to pay millions of dollars to transition to digital broadcasting even if they don't run a single minute of HD.
> ...


The (mandatory) transition is to DTV, not HD. No broadcaster is required to do HD.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Correct, Nick. I didn't mean to imply otherwise.


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## HIPAR (May 15, 2005)

Nick said:


> The (mandatory) transition is to DTV, not HD. No broadcaster is required to do HD.


I suppose there are still those out there who don't understand this and what you say is correct. But lets get real .. DTV without HDTV is like an ice cream sundae without whipped cream.

--- CHAS


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## kenglish (Oct 2, 2004)

Maybe the FCC (and all the others) could take some time and look over this website:

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

Stuart Sweet said:


> Jim5506,
> 
> just as there are challenges for the public there are also challenges for the content providers. The transition to HD will pay off in time, but in the short run, broadcasters have to pay millions of dollars to transition to digital broadcasting even if they don't run a single minute of HD.
> 
> ...


The majority of viewers won't bother buying HD sets due to )1 Costs, )2 learning curves.


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