Utahns who have plunked down $3,000 to $5,000 for a digital television finally had something to watch Thursday as signals began streaming from a new transmission center in the Oquirrh Mountains.
KBYU Channel 11, KJZZ Channel 14, KSL Channel 5, KTVX Channel 4, KUED Channel 7, KULC Channel 9, KUTV Channel 2 and KUWB Channel 30 pooled their resources to build the $7 million DTV antenna and control center atop Farnsworth Peak, named for the recognized father of television, Philo T. Farnsworth.DTV offers picture and sound quality consistently better than current analog broadcasts in a format that adds a third more viewing width to the screen. Broadcasters also have the option of sending high-definition, or HDTV, pictures with even greater picture quality.
"I now realize that there is a reason we've put off buying that new television set for our family room," Gov. Mike Leavitt said after touring the broadcast center and manhandling a pair of giant scissors in the proverbial ribbon-cutting ceremony.
In the industry, DTV is being called the biggest revolution in broadcasting since the introduction of color TV in 1954.
Just as the advent of color meant consumers had to buy new TVs to view color programming, consumers will now have to buy digital television sets to view the wide-screen digital broadcasts. As a bridge between analog and digital TV technologies, television manufacturers plan to offer converter boxes for about $100 that will allow consumers to convert digital TV signals for viewing on a conventional television.
The technology change is driven by mandates from the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC rules put television markets on a schedule for digital conversion that stretches several years into the future. Broadcasters in Salt Lake City, the country's 36th largest television market, are not required to offer digital broadcasts until May 1, 2002, so the Thursday launch shows the Salt Lake market is well ahead of schedule.
KSL and KTVX were the only two stations to actually begin piping out digital broadcasts Thursday.
Greg James, KSL vice president of engineering and president of DTV Utah Inc., said Salt Lake retailer RC Willey reported 29 percent of the TV sets it sold in recent months were digital, instead of the 4 percent they expected. But the percentage of Salt Lake-area households with DTVs is still remarkably small. KJZZ general manager Randy Rigby said his station is waiting both for more viewers to have the equipment and for the availability of digital programming to increase before the station's digital broadcasts begin.
KUTV station manager David Phillips said network affiliate CBS, is concentrating digital conversion efforts in its top 10 markets first. FCC deadlines for digital conversion are closer in those markets. He expects KUTV will begin offering digital broadcasts in the spring.
The Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association estimates 30 percent of U.S. households will own a digital set by 2006. TV stations will continue to broadcast both analog and digital signals until then. Not wanting to draw the ire of the 98 percent of U.S. households with at least one television, the consumer electronics group points out analog TVs will still work for decades with cable (which offers digital delivery of analog programming but is resisting a move to high-definition digital) and home satellite services and with current VCRs and DVD players.