Audio Video News

Maine's Republican senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, have introduced a bill that would fund digital repeater transmitters in areas where DTV reception is weak.

The DTV Cliff Effect Assistance Act would spend $125 million to subsidize the building of translator towers. It gets its name from the cliff effect, the term used to describe the tendency of DTV signals to suddenly blank out when signal strength drops below a certain threshold.

Explained Sen. Susan Collins: "I have talked to many people in Maine who have purchased a converter box yet they still cannot receive a digital signal or they are experiencing a drastic decrease in service.... Unlike analog signals, digital signals are more susceptible to interference from mountains, hills, and tall buildings. Our legislation would provide funding to help increase signal strength by purchasing digital translators."

The Federal Communications Commission has provisionally allowed broadcasters to use repeaters.

See Broadcasting & Cable.