• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 16, 2009

Even as lawmakers debate whether to extend the deadline for America's transition to a digital TV broadcasting system because a significant number of TV households may still be unprepared, Nielsen Co. Thursday made the case that the TV industry - and the ratings firm - definitely are not prepared. In a series of reports, and a special webcasted seminar, Nielsen executives detailed just how convoluted the myriad of TV distribution systems currently are in the U.S., and how little many programmers and distributors actually understand about the ramifications of the switch to digital.

"Many broadcasters do not know how cable systems receive their signals," the Nielsen presentation, a copy of which was obtained by MediaDailyNews opens with.

The report's second point: "If there is a problem a call will likely come to the [TV] station. What do you say? 'Not my problem?'"

Its third point was probably the most salient one provided: "Broadcasters, cable, and DBS must cooperate and collaborate on a technical level or we all suffer."

With one month left before the current federally mandated deadline of Feb. 17th, Nielsen recommended the following actions:

* Cable/DBS operators need to know broadcaster's plans.
* Broadcasters need to know location and method of reception in advance when planning changes in coverage.
* We strongly encourage broadcasters to look at quality of reception of their signals by cable/DBS as well.

What was not clear from the presentation, is exactly how prepared Nielsen is for potential dislocation of TV viewing households, given the number of uncertainties. But, which was stuffed with confusing schematics diagramming the Rube Goldberg like nature of TV distribution systems, and referenced a multitude of jargon that only a topnotch industry engineer might truly understand, also includes an illustration of a archetypal broadcast executive slapping his head with the look of pain and frustration on his face.

The illustration accompanied a ranking of half a dozen chief "areas of concern:"

* Encoders failing to produce code
* Encoder Clock Drift
* Encoder Time Sync
* Encoder Path Accuracy
* Client awareness of these issues in their plant
* Preparation for DTV

On Thursday, it looked as if Nielsen and the TV industry might get a reprieve, as lawmakers introduced legislation that would delay the digital TV transition to June 12.

The legislation was introduced by West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the new chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, who asserted that many Americans still are not prepared for the switch, because the federal government had run short of funding for a coupon program that would help consumers defray the cost of purchasing digital converters for analog-only TV's unable to receive over-the-air digital broadcast signals.

More than two million TV households are estimated to still be waiting to receive coupons to purchase the converters.