HDTV: What Will Happen to the Little Guy

If you’re like me, you’ve grown accustomed to your local television programming. If you’re from a small area you may be wondering how your local networks will stay afloat with the current DTV expectations. Don’t worry, the little networks won’t be smeared off of the face of your television but because they are on a smaller ratio they will have to continue to broadcast under analog venue.

This applies to all lower power or community stations with restricted range, all Class A stations, and all translator or booster stations. If your favorite stations fall under one of these categories be aware of that as it may have some affect on your decisions in the transition phase to digital TV. However, if you watch television through cable or satellite you shouldn’t need to be concerned because this concern is only related to over the air signals and most digital television sets have a built in analog tuner.

If you’re unsure if your favorite stations fall under one of these categories one factor to look for is this: If the station you are watching is channel 13 but your tuned to channel 23 than this signifies a translator station and it falls under the analog category but to make things a bit easier I found a website that lists lower power television stations by state. It can be found at http://www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon/LPTVmap.html.