Hulu has engaged a partnership with ABC to ‘air’ their primetime shows on their system. Not a few, all of them –

Today marks the official start of a new relationship: the launch of ABC content on Hulu. Things kick off with five episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, the primetime drama set at Seattle Grace Hospital, where surgical interns try to navigate the challenges of romance and friendship as they scrub in for complicated medical cases. The videos posted on Hulu will mirror the episodes most recently aired on TV, which includes the two-part Season 5 opener, two episodes from the middle of the season, and another pair that lead up to the heart-wrenching finale.We have more ABC titles on the way, too.

Check our Hulu Days of Summer calendar to see what’s new each day this week; we’ll also post clues to the next day’s content each weekday on our Twitter and Facebook pages. (You can also check the Twitter feed on the main Hulu Blog page for clues if you’re not on Twitter or Facebook.

Here’s the iteresting tidbit. Advertising onair the going rate is $20/thousand on average. On Hulu its $60 per. Why the disparity? Less competition for eyeballs means that the advertising that is viewed isn’t sandwiched between the shamwow guy and a Billy Mays tribute. Even at the higher pay rate the advertising is more effective.

But Hulu is not alone. Less fanfare of course but YouTube now has their shows category up and running as well. Fact when my granddaughter was here she and I watched old mickey mouse cartoons together on YouTube.

Linky.

Digital conversion was to have happened back in February. Congress delayed it to 6/12. Some areas like Hawaii went ahead and did the switch anyway (as the law permitted). But did extending the date clear up the problem? Nooooo –

Michael J. Copps, the acting head of the Federal Communications Commission, said that the people most likely to lose reception are society’s most vulnerable — lower-income families, the elderly, the handicapped and homes where little or no English is spoken. The transition will also hit inner-city and rural areas hardest, he said.

“We are much better prepared than we were in February, when the original transition was to have occurred, but there will nonetheless be significant disruptions,” Mr. Copps said in an interview. “In the past five months we’ve tried to accomplish what should have been done over the last four years.”

More than three million homes that do not subscribe to cable or satellite services are totally unprepared for the transition and will lose their reception, according to Nielsen. Another nine million homes that subscribe to cable or satellite services but that have spare television sets — typically in bedrooms and kitchens — that are not connected to any service are also expected to lose reception. The conversion does not affect cable or satellite distribution.

[source]

Sorry but this is the typical sob story we get from the NYT all the time. Oh woe for the weak, the poor, the uneducated. I am not heartless but folks lets face some reality shall we — this is TV we are talking about! Not access to health care or the voting booth. Freaking entertainment. As I recall I never saw in film a banner on the Normandy beaches saying — “Give me DTV, or give me death”.

I would also like to know what Americorps is doing spending my tax dollars installing converter boxes? Let the private sector handle it. Or the consumer. Were dealing with a power cord and 2 cables that need to be hooked up.

To the 3m. Tough. Get with the program.

The Associated Press shows its technical incompetence — again. If you saw this piece — 25% of analog TV signals cut off
Many homes not prepared for digital switch — read it but don’t follow their technical suggestion. —

In addition, many households will find that they need new antennas. Digital signals generally come in better than analog ones, but they are not received well by some older antennas.

You are wasting your money. As the author of this Popular Science piece observes –

This makes a blank screen appear to be the antenna’s fault. Not so. And it could scare some people into wasting money on new “digital” antennas. A radio wave is a radio wave — whether it carries an analog or digital TV signal. So the old antenna picks up the new signal just as well — in fact identically — as it picks up the new signal.

The problem is in the signal and the receiver. Analog receivers are more tolerant of weak, distorted signals. After all, it’s analog’s nature to degrade, which is why almost no one gets a pristine analog TV signal (unless they live right next to a tower). Digital doesn’t tolerate ambiguity. The receiver is looking for either a 1 or a 0. It won’t tolerate 0.5, for example. So if a digital signal deteriorates too badly, the receiver just throws its hands up in disgust, which we see as a blank screen.

An antenna is an antenna. There are many different designs based on the frequencies that are to be captured. But that is based on frequency requirements of the carrier wave, NOT whether the underlying signal is analog or digital. Fact is at the carrier wave, all signals are analog. That is the nature of radio frequency transmissions.

If you think you need or want a new antenna why not follow our advise, get out the wrenches and build your own.

linky.

If you’re in a smaller market or like programming on small independent stations, time’s up. Tonight’s the original deadline and there’s going to be plenty of dead air tomorrow. Most of the network stations in the larger markets have been strong armed by the feds into keeping the old signal up for a bit longer.  Here’s a list of the stations that told the FCC they would be switching off tonight.

It’s probably going to be a busy night in stores that carry electronics. There is a shortage of converter boxes at some retailers, but I noticed a large pile in the floor of a Best Buy in Irving, TX today.

If you’re with us in the opinion that delaying the cut off of analog TV transmissions would only create more chaos than to just proceed on schedule, you were right. While the newly passed law allows broadcasters to delay the Feb 17 kill switch on analog, they are free shut down on that date. Just the cost of the power to operate a second transmitter is significant, and then there’s the maintenance on what for many  is older, trouble prone equipment. Bottom line: lots of analog signals will go away next week.

The delay sent TV stations scrambling to figure out when to shut down analog Most had planned for years to do it on Feb. 17, and many had scheduled engineering work.

The Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday that 491 of the 1,796 full-power TV stations in the country had registered their intention to keep the Feb. 17 date. The FCC has reserved the right to deny individual stations an early shutdown.

Markets losing most or all of their major analog network broadcasts include Oklahoma City; Tulsa, Okla.; Charleston and Greenville, S.C.; Dayton, Ohio; Springfield, Ill.; Burlington, Vt.; Bakersfield, Calif.; Binghamton, N.Y.; Casper, Wyo.; Lincoln, Neb.; Lubbock, Texas; Mobile, Ala.; and Sioux Falls, S.D.

Most of the stations shutting down early are in small- to medium-sized cities. The major broadcast networks have committed to the June 12 date for the 85 stations they own, mainly in large cities.

The transition is being mandated because digital signals are more efficient than analog ones. Ending analog broadcasts will free up valuable space in the nation’s airwaves for commercial wireless services and emergency-response networks. (Yahoo)

I’m seeing an alarming trend with our new Congress and President. When challenges like the lack of preparation for the DTV cut over arise, they tend to meddle making things worse and costlier than they were to begin with. The only thing worse than a nanny state is a Luddite nanny state meddling in technology.

There are a ton of antennas out there for the new UHF oriented DTV signals. Yeah you can go out an buy one commerically. But hey, what’s the sport in that? Why not dust off those DIY skills and make your own?

The design at the link below is mostly PVC pipe, PVC couplers, chicken wire and a few bits of metal strap. Its designed for those that sit in fringe areas 40-50mi from the source. A parts list and build instructions are included. If cable is not available to you then this might be the ticket.

Antenna website.

Flash update. House approves delay for DTV to June 12. Dumb idea. Never mind the fact that the funding vehicle for the DTV delay for more coupons are stuck in the ‘Stimulus Bill’ now getting a ripping in the Senate. So half of the 4 months will be lost before the bill ever gets to the Presidents desk.

What a farce.

Well it looks like the House, not having been satisfied with whipping itself the first go around is coming back for a second round. We have already pontificated enough on the stupidity of this move. Check the archives if you are interested. You want to put your healtcare in the hands of these idiots? –

After failing to get the required two-third majority on Wednesday, the House is expected next week to pass legislation delaying the digital television transition to June 12, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. The Senate has already voted to extend the deadline, and President Obama has indicated he will sign the bill.

Just Do It Already!

Linky

…Well to tell the truth, everybody. The bigger losers are of course the TV broadcasters. They spend all that time, money and effort and now its on hold for a couple of months. Another loser is the government itself. They spend a $1Bn in public awareness, enforcement, public policy to have this be a disaster –

This aggressive campaign has pushed consumer awareness rates well above 90 percent, according to Megan Pollock, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association.

“We have been working for almost three years to educate consumers that this is the day,” Pollock said. “How do we re-create that? It will be hard to start over.”

It will also be costly - forcing the government and industry to pour more resources into additional public service announcements and outreach efforts.

For many television stations, a delay would also mean the additional expense of continuing to broadcast both an analog and a digital signal for another four months.

So lets run some numbers. There are ~90m households in this country. Lets assume that everyone of them has at least 1 TV set. Also assume that half of them have cable. That works out to ~$22/TV. Or roughly half the value of the $40 converter coupon. It seems reasonable to me that we could have just sent a $22 refund check via the IRS to everyone who filed either Joint or Head of Household and been done with it. Put a “redeemable for any converter purchase” on it and been done with it.

I hazard it would have been more effective than the boatload of effort that has been expended to date. Highly recommend you read the Wired article linked below.

Linky

I ask that question because there is a move afoot by the Commerce Committee under Rockefeller to push the DTV rollout to sometime in June. Now think how stupid this idea is. -

• We are less than 3 weeks away from a cut over. If a TV station intended to stay on the air, operating, they would have already made the capital investments to go digital. So the delay does not buy the stations anything financially.
• For the consumer, well yeah they get a reprieve. But it does not accomplish anything. Human nature, if the consumer has not bought a converter by now they are blissfully unaware or like many just won’t do anything till the screen goes to snow. Delaying will not alter that behavior.
• Heck even for the Telcos want to see a delay to avoid spending money right now on 700mhz, 6 months does not do much for them. For them better the delay is 1 year or better yet 2. All this does is give a little more breathing room for planning.

So the nanny state Pols yet again meddle in affairs wringing their hands over ‘concerns for the poor’. Hmm can’t afford $10? ($50 converter - $40 Fed coupon) Rockefeller is a bigger fool that I imagined.

Linky.

Update: Just announced on Fox News, 6:54pm CT. It is a done deal. The DTV transition is to be delayed for 4 months. Ok where do I go to pick up my Karnack outfit??? Johnnnyyyyy!!