Public Television Digital Transition Grant Program

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As part of the nation's transition to digital television, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required all television broadcasters to have converted their transmitters to broadcast digital signals by June 12, 2009. While stations must broadcast their main transmitter signal in digital, many rural public television stations have yet to complete a full digital transition of their stations across all equipment. Rural stations often have translators serving small or isolated areas and some of these have not completed the transition to digital. The digital transition has also created some service gaps where households that received an analog signal are now unable to receive a digital signal, and the public television station would like to install a fill-in translator to continue service to these areas. Some rural stations also have not fully converted their production and studio equipment to digital. Grant funds may be used to acquire and install facilities and software necessary for the transition as well as equipment to facilitate local origination and management of programming. Grant funds may also be used for associated engineering and environmental studies. The program is targeted at public television stations that serve rural areas.

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