Erin brockovich part 1 Fears

Erin brockovich part 1

Fears of blank TV screens and pixelated shows largely failed to materialize in San Diego on Wednesday as months of public outreach left the vast majority of viewers capable of receiving pictures via the new all-digital broadcasts, the Times wrote in a boosterish article. The Columbus Dispatch, whose ownership also owns a local TV station in Columbus, ran a headline that said: Switch to Digital TV Met With Little Fanfare. The Tampa Tribune, owned by Media General, which owns TV stations in 18 markets, published a headline stating, Digital TV Switch Doesn t Faze Viewers. And there were several other examples of newspapers owned by companies that own local TV stations printing Digital TV stories that seemed more appropriate for a collection of short fantasies. But it wasn t just the consumer press that seemed to go into the tank on this story. If you read the nation s leading TV trade publications, you would think the early switch went as smooth as silk. For instance, Multichannel News ran a headline saying, Early DTV Switch: Hardly a Hitch. The story actually included the following sentence: There appeared to be no major fallout from the discontinuation of analog by about one-quarter of the stations on the original transition hard date. Broadcasting Cable published a headline that said: FCC Says It Is Handling DTV Calls So Far. The publication also ran a story featuring a FCC commissioner praising local stations for their cooperation with the switch. And yet another B C article was published under the headline, NAB National Association of Broadcasters Says DTV Calls Aren t Flooding Switchboards. TV Week s headline published the day after the switch read: DTV Switch The story s lead sentence read: Initial reports from some of the 421 stations that yesterday switched to digital TV signals suggest the most dire predictions about the transition may have been overblown. To TV Week s credit, the publication has balanced that view in recent days with additional articles. So, what s happening here? Why are so many publications seemingly so eager to portray the early Digital TV switch as a huge success? It s quite simple. In the case of newspapers with ownership connections to local TV stations, they are following orders. Their corporate parents have a vested interest in creating the perception that the switch is a success, so by God, their newspapers will toe the line or else. Don t kid yourselves, folks. Newsrooms do not make decisions based solely on journalistic reasons. And in the case of the trade publications, they have an historic closeness to the National Association of Broadcasters and other industry heavyweights who want the DTV switch to be portrayed as a success. In fact, their readership is largely made up of industry officials, not average consumers who are still struggling to figure out the complexities of the DTV switch. Consequently, their stories have been largely pro-Digital TV. In my view, the reality is that the early Digital TV switch was a mixed bag. In some cities, viewers handled it well, but in others, it s a mess and continues to be. And when all local TV erin brockovich part 1 switch on June 12, it will likely be a similar scenario. In cities where an overwhelming majority of viewers have prepared for the switch, it will go, yes, without a hitch. But in many markets, the switch will leave thousands without any TV signals and thousands more with spotty reception. But depending upon which publication you read, you may not get that story. Thursday, February 19, 2009, 05:07 AM The cable operator reports huge sub losses and there s a good reason. Washington, February 19, 2009 Guess which TV provider offers more High-Definition channels. DIRECTV, which added 301, 000 net new subscribers in last year s fourth quarter and increased its total subscriber count by 800, 000 erin brockovich part 1 the year. Comcast, which reported yesterday that it lost 500, 000 subscribers in 2008, almost half in the fourth quarter. No, it s not a trick question.