Remember the opening line of "The Outer Limits"
There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. For the next hour we will control all that you see and hear. You are about to experience the awe and mystery, which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

– In this case the outer limits begin where the NTSC broadcast ends…
In a bid to understand and mitigate potential problems with the 2009 analog cut-off, the FCC is doing a pilot program in Wilmington, NC that will move to digital only broadcast at noon one week from today.

After that time, viewers in the Wilmington area will see this graphic:
At noon on Sept. 8, 2008, commercial television stations in Wilmington, N.C., began to broadcast programming exclusively in a digital format. If you are viewing this message, this television set has not yet been upgraded to digital. To receive your television signals, upgrade to digital now with a converter box, a new TV set with a digital (ATSC) tuner or by subscribing to a pay service like cable or satellite. For more information call: 1-877-DTV-0908 or TTY: 1-866-644-0908 or visit [dedicated Web site].

The test in the Wilmington DMA (designated market area) is to measure public reaction to the loss of their analog signal, a full five months ahead of the mandated cut-off. But have no fear, high profile Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Alexandria, VA based Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) (www.ce.org) said that consumers are ready for the spectrum swap from analog (NTSC) broadcast to the new (ATSC) digital signals, which are already being sent by the nation’s local broadcasters.

Shapiro believes consumers are on track to manage the cut-off with some 32M sets to be sold in the US by the end of the year. "Decades of hard work, unprecedented public and private partnerships and countless hours of consumer education are working," he said.

Not so, say some analysts who point to blank spots in coverage areas not serviced by the less pervasive digital signals. And beyond the (mostly rural) holes in the coverage area, education was the number one issue in getting consumers on board. In a nod to those skeptics, Shapiro said, "We continue to recognize and understand the need to ensure a smooth DTV transition. Together with our industry and government partners, we are committed to ensuring that television viewers do not lose service because they were not aware of the transition or their options."

The truth is, most folks have been informed to some degree (or misinformed) as we reported back in March that nearly one-third Americans with analog televisions, reported in a Consumer Reports study were "unaware" of the analog cut-off and of those who are aware of the cut-off, a whopping 74% had some serious misconceptions about the DTV transition, including:

• 58% believe all TVs will need a digital converter box to function
• 48% believe only digital televisions will work after 2009
• 24% believe they will need to trash all analog TVs

So if Shapiro is correct there really has been much progress, but since this is only five months since the C-R study, it would be real nice Gary, to see some hard numbers to back up those claims–so we did a bit of digging.

According to a study by Seth Geiger LLC, contracted by NAB, 64% of consumers currently using OTA broadcasts as their primary mode of TV reception have already taken steps to prepare for the switch to digital, with 35% and 45% respectively saying they would opt for the analog converter box, or upgrade to a DTV. The problem is that the study was conducted back in the spring (between March 29 and May 13) around the same time as the Consumer Reports study mentioned above.

So in one week, we (or at least the good citizens of Wilmington) will get our first taste of a DTV only world. Mayor Bill Saffo (not up for re-election) volunteered his community for the FCC test and we hope to learn much from the experience. Perhaps this DMA was a good pick for the FCC to conduct the analog cut-off test. After all, the Gulf Coast community is located smack dab in the middle of hurricane country and no stranger to natural disaster.

"We now return control of your television set to you, until next week at this same time when the Control voice will take you to The Outer Limits."