This Is Only a Test

摘要

More than a million DTV-to-an-alog converters were requested in the first two days of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTLA) converter-box subsidy program last week. We don'trnknow whether that means the converter-box education message has gotten out to key target populations like the elderly and minorities, or whether, as we suspect, it is the techno-friendly early adopters who want to make sure they get theirs before the coupons run out.rnEither way, the switch to digital is officially on in earnest, at least if interest in the coupons is any gauge. And not a minute too soon. There is just over a yearrnuntil all ot the lull-power DTV stationsrnhave to pull the plug on their analogrnsignals, and the FCC last week, inrnemphasizing the point, said any full-rnpower station broadcasting in analogrnafter the stroke of midnight on Feb. 17,2009, willrnbe treated as an unlicensed operator and dealt withrnaccordingly. That message came in the FCC's releasernof its long-awaited rules of the road for the DTVrntransition.