Isolated Alaskans in danger of losing free TV service that connects them to rest of the world

More than 100,000 people in Alaska may soon lose their connection to the outside world, if lawmakers don't step in to keep the Alaska Rural Communications Service from going dark in 2015, Jill Burke reports for the Alaska Dispatch. (Dispatch photo by Loren Holmes)

"Since the early 1980s, a patchwork of broadcast transmitters across Alaska have captured a mish-mash satellite feed in order to deliver free, over-the-air television into the homes of the state's smallest communities," Burke writes. The programming reaches 110,000 people in 230 small or isolated communities, and is considered a crucial service that connects people to the "blitz of information most urban residents take for granted – sitcoms, politics, local and national news, government, sports, weather, emergency announcements."

The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that low-power television stations upgrade to digital by Sept. 1, 2015, Davidson reports. Without a $5.3 million investment by the Alaska Legislature, free television in the state will be eliminated. Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell has requested funding for digital conversion and "broadcasters and the Alaska Federation of Natives have lobbied in favor of keeping the system alive, arguing it's a crucial lifeline for communities that would otherwise have few, if any, alternatives."