The Sinclair-owned television stations in Las Vegas rolled the dice on a Feb. 17 digital switchover—and so far, the bet seems to be paying off.
Mike Brown, director of engineering for Sinclair duopoly KVCW and KVMY, said that as of 3 p.m. local time, the station had gotten “very few calls” about the loss of its analog signal. He estimated that roughly 30 viewers had phoned the station directly.
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“There are probably 10 to 15 of those people who are (upset), and who you’re never going to make happy,” he said. “The rest have just wanted help with their signal. It’s kind of what I expected.”
KVCW and KVMY, the respective CW and MyNetworkTV outlets in Sin City, are running so-called “night light” billboards on their analog bandwidth informing viewers that the stations have gone digital and sending them to the FCC’s toll-free digital hotline for answers to any concerns they might have. As a result, it’s possible that more than 30 Las Vegas viewers have been left in the dark by the switchover.
Mr. Brown also anticipated extra call volume during prime time. He and other station staffers planned to stay late to field calls.
Relentless warnings about the switch seemed to have paid off. KVCW and KVMY had been running crawls on their analog signals for weeks, prompting about 10 calls a day from viewers unsure of what to do or how to tune in to a digital signal.
With around 728,000 TV homes, Las Vegas is the nation’s 42nd largest TV market, according to Nielsen estimates issued in September. Its other major English-language stations chose to push their digital switchovers to June.
Sinclair, however, issued a statement arguing that delaying the digital leap would simply lead to more audience confusion.
So far, Mr. Brown said his two stations are weathering the transition well.
“Everything’s pretty smooth,” he said.
(Editor: Baumann)