Move to Digital TV Faces Language Barrier

Angelica Jimenez of the District uses "rabbit ears" to watch TV. Without converter boxes, such antennas won't get a signal starting in February. (By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)
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Most of Telemundo's viewers in the region watch the station on a cable or satellite service. But those who rely on antennas will no longer receive the programs, said Wendy Thompson, the station's general manager.

"For minority broadcasters, this is a major issue," she said. "We have to expect the worst and hope for the best."

TeleFutura is also a low-powered station in Washington, but it recently launched its own digital signal in an effort to keep over-the-air viewers -- but they will still need a converter box to receive the new signal.

Another Spanish-language broadcaster, V-me, expects to benefit from digital transition. V-me has been digital since its debut last year on Maryland Public Television, and it hopes to be broadcast in the District and in Northern Virginia by February. Once over-the-air viewers get a converter box or buy a digital TV, the station expects it will be in 80 percent of Hispanic households in the region, compared with its current 50 percent.

"Our numbers are going to jump dramatically," said Carmen DiRienzo, president of V-me. "All those Hispanic households are going to see us as easily as they used to see their analog channels."

Nationally, more than 40 percent of Spanish-speaking households watch over-the-air television, according to the Knowledge Networks/SRI survey. Large efforts are underway to educate TV watchers about the impending transition.

The FCC has been hosting town hall meetings around the country and distributing educational materials in multiple languages, with particular emphasis on Spanish. And the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is in charge of distributing government-subsidized $40 coupons to help consumers pay for converter boxes that typically cost $50 to $80, operates a Spanish-language hotline that fields about 40 percent of the total calls to the agency. IBM, which is under contract to run the NTIA's call centers, is hiring more operators fluent in Spanish.

Univision, the No. 1 Spanish-language broadcaster in the United States, launched a public service ad campaign and last month started a program called Escuadrón Digital that sends "digital squads" into communities with large Hispanic populations to educate viewers about the switch. Telemundo, owned by NBC Universal, has aired several thousand announcements about digital TV during the most popular viewing periods of the day.

The National Association of Broadcasters says the efforts are working. A recent survey commissioned by the group shows that 91 percent of Hispanic households receiving over-the-air TV shows are aware of the transition, up from 31 percent in September.

Community groups worry that Spanish-speaking viewers still may be left behind. The Rev. Luis Cortés Jr., president of Esperanza USA, a faith-based organization in Philadelphia that has tried to get the word out about the transition, said he suspects that many people with limited incomes won't bother to apply for a converter-box coupon until their TVs don't work.

"Their eyes glaze over when you say digital because it means nothing to them -- they don't have computers, they don't have iPods," he said. "The only national media vehicle in Spanish is TV."

Lawmakers have expressed concern that switching to digital technology may negatively affect people who live near the Mexican border. Because Mexican broadcasters are not required to switch off their analog signals, some Hispanic residents of southern Texas or California may opt to rely on Mexican analog programming instead of upgrading their TVs to receive digital signals from U.S. stations. As a result, they would not be able to receive important public-safety warnings and emergency notices broadcast within the United States.

Last year, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) introduced the DTV Border Fix Act, which would allow TV stations within 50 miles of the border to broadcast in analog for five more years. The bill, co-sponsored by Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), passed the Senate Commerce Committee in April.

Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.) this year introduced a companion bill in the House, though it has not yet been heard in committee.

Although a government-issued coupon can offset the cost of a converter box, a box still will cost about $20, which some people living near the border can't afford, she said. Even if they could, Solis said, it could be hard to find the converter boxes in rural, hard-to-reach areas.

"The FCC thinks things are going fine, and I couldn't disagree more," she said.