Digital transition could cost cable customers

Cable companies may move some programming from the analog tier to digital, as they have been doing increasingly; but FCC rules require that local broadcast channels remain viewable to analog customers.

Over time, a complete migration from analog to digital service is inevitable. An analog signal takes up more space on the network than a digital signal and subscribers pay less for it. With digital, cable companies also are able to offer additional services, like telephone and Internet.

Smaller cable systems are expected to have a more difficult time with the transition.

Jess King is president of Cablevision of Marion County LLC, which is about 40 miles south of Gainesville, Fla. King recently spoke to a gathering of residents of an "over-55" retirement community, including Spurk.

"My decision was, whether I continued to try to muddle along here with all of my channel space being used up with a few analog channels or whether I would go all digital," King said. "So I got an FCC variance to go all digital."

King's company is small, he says, with fewer than 10,000 subscribers, and he is facing increasingly intense competition from satellite companies that offer large packages of high-definition channels — an option not available to him due to capacity limitations.

But according to Spurk, King blamed the shift on the government.

"Immediately he starts the meeting with, 'If you don't like what I'm going to say here, blame the FCC, because they're the ones forcing the transition on us,'" she said.

Better picture
The digital conversion will allow broadcasters to offer a better picture. It will also free up parts of the broadcast spectrum for commercial users and emergency responders. Last month, the FCC wrapped up an auction that drew more than $19 billion in bids for airwaves that will be freed up by the transition.

King said the primary purpose of the meeting was to educate consumers about the limitations of the government coupon program.

Whether or not cable companies like King's can pass on costs related to the transition to customers is a subject the industry and the FCC generally avoid.

The FCC's digital transition Web site says if a cable company goes all digital and requires customers to get a set-top box, "any costs related to it will be determined by the cable company."

But FCC regulations approved last fall seem to contradict that point.

The rules require cable companies to provide local broadcast channels to analog customers through February of 2012. Certain smaller cable systems can request a waiver.

They also note that a provider that goes the all-digital route must supply analog customers with the equipment needed to view the local broadcast channels, and that "any costs incurred by a cable operator in down-converting or carrying alternative format versions of signals ... shall be the responsibility of the cable operator."

If that were the case, King said it would bankrupt him.

"I can't put that much money into these homes," he said. "How can anyone — I'm talking about the government or even an individual — think that a company could absorb that kind of a cost?"

Nothing in the rules would prevent operators from continuing to offer both analog and digital signals, however.

Brian Dietz, spokesman for the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, said his organization interprets the rules to mean cable companies are prevented from recovering costs stemming from the head-end down-conversion, not the costs of set-top boxes required by the all-digital option.

But fine print aside, analog cable customers just want to know if the digital transition is going to cost them more money. And that, according to Dietz, is "a decision that's left up to individual cable operators."

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