Digital TV Timeline
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has mandated that all TV broadcasts
must be in Digital format by the year 2006. What does the timeline look like from now
until then?
May, 2001: Network affiliates in the thirty largest markets
must begin digital broadcasts.
May 2002: All commercial stations in the US must begin digital broadcasts.
May 2003: All noncommercial stations in the US must begin digital broadcasts.
May 2006: Analog TV signals will be completely eliminated in the US.
From the present to May, 2006
Broadcasters who begin DTV transmissions, will simultaneously broadcast analog TV as well.
Also take note that these mandates have not stated anything about cable broadcasts and or high definition
broadcasts. It is up to the cable companies to make the switch to digital on their own. As for the actual
TV stations, they are only required to broadcast in a digital format and
broadcasting in high definition is completely up to them.
Another interesting thing to note is how long it took most stations to get up to snuff. There
still are a lot of stations that are not broadcasting digitally, though most local affilates are
on the way.
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