Switch to digital in U.S. will not impact Bahamas

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Switch to digital in U.S. will not impact Bahamas
By K. NANCOO-RUSSELL
Freeport News Reporter
Despite concerns by customers about the switch from analog todigital cable that is currently taking place in the United States,Cable Bahamas officials are assuring the public that the move doesnot affect its service in The Bahamas.
David Burrows, director of Marketing at Cable Baha-mas, explainedto The Freeport News yesterday that the only persons who mayexperience any changes as a result of this switch are those whorely on antennas to pick up a signal.
"This is really a United States initiative and its for broadcastchannels, so it really doesn't impact anything here because theonly broadcast channel that we have is ZNS and to my knowledge, Ihave not heard of ZNS going digital," he said.
"So, unless you are talking about maybe channels that are beingreceived from the U.S. , they are the only people that are beingaffected. If you're picking up any of those U.S. channels with anantenna and you do not have a digital television, you won't beseeing them."
Burrows said that number will be minimal since most people in TheBahamas do not have antennas anymore.
He explained that regular cable customers will not be impacted inany way since none of the content that is received from cabletelevision is broadcast.
"If you are a cable customer, it doesn't impact you at all becauseyou will have cable television that has already been secured, be itanalog or digital and of course you have digital set top boxes sothat doesn't impact any of the signals that we provide," heassured.
According to the Federal Communication Commis-sion's website,starting February 17, 2009, U.S. federal law will require that alltelevision broadcast stations stop broadcasting in analog formatand broadcast only in digital format.
This step was mandated by Congress in an effort to free upfrequencies for public safety communications such as police, fire,and emergency rescue.
In addition, some of the freed up frequencies will be used foradvanced commercial wireless services for consumers.
This means that analog broadcast tuners will require a converterbox after the above-mentioned date to receive over-the-airbroadcasts with an antenna because of the transition to digitalbroadcasting.
Analog-only televisions should continue to work as before withcable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVDplayers, and similar products.
Since March 1, 2007, all television receivers shipped interstate orimported into the United States must contain a digital tuner.
In addition, effective May 25, 2007, the Commission requiredsellers of television receiving equipment that does not include adigital tuner to disclose at the point-of-sale that such devicesinclude only an analog tuner, and therefore will require adigital-to-analog converter box to receive over-the-air broadcasttelevision after the transition date.
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