Super Bowl to be broadcast in low-def only in the Hills

| Wednesday, January 17, 2007

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Dan Daly, Journal staff

RAPID CITY -- For Black Hills viewers of high-definition television, the Feb. 4 Super Bowl LXI will be a low-definition event.

Young Broadcasting, the company that operates CBS-affiliate KELO-TV, does not offer high-definition on its West River stations, confirmed Gwen Kinsey, the company’s president and general manager.

KELO, the company’s namesake transmitter that serves Sioux Falls, has been converted to offer HDTV in addition to its regular TV signal, she said. However, the transmitters that serve the rest of the state, KPLO, KDLO and KCLO, have not yet been converted.

“We’ve already invested $4 million, and we’re not done yet,” she said.

That means that West River viewers who have high-definition televisions won’t be able to watch the Super Bowl in high-definition, not even on cable TV or satellite.

The only exception -- and it’s a rare one -- is if you are a rural customer of DirecTV satellite service, and you have an exemption from KELO to get CBS programming from another market, according to Bill Teevens of Wirefree USWA, a dealer for DirecTV.

Under Federal Communications Commissions regulations, people who live beyond the reach of the local station’s over-the-air broadcast range can get an exemption that allows them to receive network programming from Seattle or some other CBS-affiliated station. Otherwise, the FCC says, you must watch network programming on the local network affiliate.

Asked how soon KELO will begin offering HDTV in the rest of the state, Kinsey hedged.

“We’re doing it as best we can,” she said. “We have the (state’s) largest distribution system, and it’s a bit more of a challenge to build out the facilities we have.”

Three of Rapid City’s other network-affiliated stations now offer high-definition programming. ABC-affiliate KOTA, FOX-affiliate KEVN and Public Broadcasting’s KBHE all broadcast in high-definition.

Next Sunday’s NFL conference championship games will be half-high-def, half-low-def, at least locally. The NFC championship will be at 1 p.m. on FOX-TV, and the AFC championship at 4:30 p.m. CBS-TV.

KNBN, the Rapid City NBC affiliate, doesn’t have a high-definition signal. General Manager Jim Simpson said KNBN will make the switch to HDTV when the FCC phases out the old analog signal completely in February 2009.

For the most part, local HDTV viewers here are also cable TV subscribers. Local cable companies offer a package of high-definition programming that includes both local network programming and HD cable offerings such as ESPN, NFL Network, HBO and Showtime.

HDTV has been stuck in a Catch 22 from the start. Stations have been dragging their feet to invest in the HD transmitters, partly because few viewers have HD-capable TV sets. People have been reluctant to buy HD sets, because there’s little in high-definition to watch.

That might be changing, however. Nationally, about 2.5 percent to 7 percent of cable subscribers are signed up for HDTV packages. A lot depends on how long the cable provider has offered HD, how much it charges and which channels it offers.

Joe Galinanes of cable provider PrairieWave Communications said HDTV is a small but fast-growing segment of the company’s market. He said PrairieWave will continue to add new HDTV channels over time.

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or at dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com