WPBA (TV) - Digital Television

Digital Television

The station's over-the-air digital channel 21 carries only one feed:

On June 12, 2009—the official end of full-power analog broadcasting in the United States--Comcast cut off WPBA to analog subscribers. This contradicted a moratorium on such actions which runs until well after the over-the-air cutoff, in order to prevent viewers from losing all sources of any channel all at once. Comcast now only airs WPBA for Atlanta-area viewers over digital cable on virtual channel 16 (816 for HDTV) as part of post-digital-transition rules allowing the system to carry only one PBS station in their area for analog viewers. (In this case, WGTV was chosen for carriage since it was presumed as the Atlanta area's "flagship station" for PBS.)

However, all analog subscribers are entitled by FCC regulation to receive simplified digital television adapters (DTAs) from the cable company at no extra charge (and extra boxes for a maximum of two dollars each per month), in order to recover channels that have been taken away but are still on the basic tier of service (below channel 100). These devices require a separate remote control which may not work with universal remotes or personal video recorders' IR blasters for recording WPBA programming.

The termination of WPBA's analog over-the-air signal allows LPTV station WTBS-LP 26 to proceed with its construction permit for digital WTBS-LD, which is also for physical channel 30.