Cable carriers to delay digital migration, offer free set-top boxes

Attention, analog TV viewers: Getting your TV signals over cable, without a set-top box? Good news: While you may still need a converter box if your carrier goes all-digital, operators have agreed (for a year, at least) to rent them out for free.

The news (as reported by Multichannel News, via Engadget HD) comes along with several other concessions from the big cable carriers, some of whom are under investigation for using the looming analog TV broadcasting shutoff in February to pressure customers to move over to pricier digital tiers.

So here's the deal, according to Multichannel News: The big U.S. cable carriers have agreed to hold off on moving all their remaining analog channels to digital until March 2009, a couple of weeks after the U.S. TV stations turn off analog over-the-air broadcasts on February 17, 2009.

Also: If you're using an analog TV and you're using cable without a cable box, AND your carrier decides to go all-digital on or after March 2009, you can rent a digital converter box from your carrier for free, for a year. (You can request a box from March 1, 2009 to June 30, 2009.) In addition, your carrier will have to give you 30 days notice before migrating all channels to digital (according to the AP).

But wait—what do analog cable services have to do with the over-the-air DTV deadline?

Well, nothing—except that cable carriers are eager to save money by moving bandwidth-hogging analog channels (including local and basic-cable stations) to digital, and some of the biggest carriers have come under fire for using the (unrelated) DTV deadline to pressure analog customers to switch to pricier digital packages (hence, the concession to stop moving analog channels to digital until after the over-the-air DTV deadline has passed).

So under the new (voluntary) plan, cable operators can still go all-digital on March 1, which means subscribers with analog TVs but no cable boxes will need digital converter boxes to continue watching local TV channels—but carriers have agreed to rent the boxes for free for one year, as well as waive (as the AP notes) "certain fees" (which means, hopefully, that you'll pay nothing extra).

No, it's not a perfect solution, but it's better than forcing analog-only cable subscribers to rent a box right out of the gate.

Related:
Cable Ops Agree To Short Digital Migration Freeze [Multichannel News, via Engadget HD]
Reader mail: Will I need a cable box after the DTV transition? [Yahoo! Tech]