FCC’s Digital Channel Allotments May Leave 2 Million Out of Picture

More than 2 million viewers in Southern California won’t have access to the super-sharp images and CD-quality sound of digital television as a result of a channel allocation plan announced by federal regulators this week.

Most of the 1,600 stations nationwide that received digital TV channel assignments from the Federal Communications Commission on Monday will be able to continue to reach their current audiences. But several stations in the Southland, including KCBS, KTLA and KNBC, will lose access to as much as 20% of their current viewership when they begin broadcasting digitally.

In Los Angeles, according to FCC estimates, KCBS-Channel 2 will lose access to 19% of its current audience--or 1.1 million viewers--when it fully moves to digital Channel 60 in 2006.

Similarly, KNBC-Channel 4 will lose access to 400,000 viewers; KTLA-Channel 5 will lose reach to 900,000 viewers; KWHY-Channel 22 could lose access to 500,000 viewers; and KABC-Channel 7, KCAL-Channel 9 and KTTV-Channel 11 would lose access to 200,000 or fewer viewers.

“It’s definitely upsetting,” said Carole Black, president and general manager of KNBC, the Burbank-based NBC station owned and operated by the network.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles School District’s KLCS-Channel 58 and Univision’s KMEX-Channel 34 would gain access to slightly more viewers.

Southern California is expected to be a leading market for the introduction of digital television, a technology that grew out of a decade-long effort by the U.S. to surpass the Japanese in creating the next generation of television technology.

But finding space for digital channels has been especially difficult in the Los Angeles area, where a vast desert basin buffeted by mountains and ocean contributes to increased signal interference among the city’s 15 TV stations and nearby outlets in Rancho Palos Verdes, Riverside and San Bernardino.

Unlike the current analog signals, which fade gradually 25 to 35 miles from the broadcast tower, digital signals maintain their strength evenly but drop off abruptly in fringe reception areas. This means engineers must more carefully target digital signals to avoid interference with other stations.

The digital signal of KCBS, for example, will cover only 39,943 square miles, contrasted with 48,054 square miles covered by the current analog signal. Similarly, KNBC’s digital signal will reach only 41,063 square miles, contrasted with 46,739 square miles it reaches now.

However, those coverage patterns will probably be readjusted in 2006, when broadcasters are required to give back to the government their analog channels, an FCC official said.

During the transition period, stations will continue to broadcast analog signals, although it is questionable whether new analog programming will be developed or whether digital televisions will be able to receive the analog signals.

The Los Angeles area must have at least four TV stations transmitting digital signals by the end of 1998, according to an agreement broadcasters struck with federal regulators earlier this month.

Broadcasters face expenditures of $1 million to $3 million per station to equip them to broadcast digital programming, which is seen as the biggest innovation in American broadcasting since color TV.

Viewers, in the meantime, are already caught in the middle of a confusing battle between traditional TV set manufacturers and the computer industry for dominance of standards in the eagerly awaited technology.

“If I had a choice, I’d just as soon say no to digital TV,” said Burt I. Harris, chairman of Harriscope Corp., which owns KWHY-TV in Los Angeles. “Digital is not going to put another dollar in any broadcaster’s pocket. . . . Most of my viewers are Hispanic. Many of them have sets that aren’t in the greatest condition in the first place. . . . This is like adding insult to injury.”