Have no fear, the Obama administration is here! Today, the Senate voted to postpone the digital switch from February 17th to June 12th. The government ran out of those $40 coupons this month and many were left with expired coupons, too, leaving 2.5 million folks on the waiting list. Some 20 million Americans are not ready for the switch as is.
via Reuters
“Some 20 million Americans are not ready for the switch as is.”
In June, about 18 million Americans will still not be ready…
Just drop one analog channel every week. As peoples viewing choices start to dwindle they will become motivated to change.
Seriously, they set the deadline 2 years ago. If people aren’t ready now, then too bad.
Funny, the first thing he’s advocated “change” for that got passed is for something not to get done…and in “technology” no less.
I smell a conspiracy. With all the people in the US 20M equals roughly 7%. Obama won the popular vote by roughly…..7%. Clearly, these people are the problem…
The Problem: My grandmother wants to watch the new season of lost. She doesn’t feel like getting a converter box.
Democratic Senate: We understand. We want to watch it too. We’ll delay this transition until the season’s over, June right? It’ll only cost $22 million and hey, we can always print more money? Isn’t that right Citi–how’s that new $55 million jet we just bought you doing?
I think the switchover should happen as scheduled. There has already been several years to get ready for the change. The small percentage of people that are not ready now probably still will not be ready June 12. Requiring broadcasters to continue operating analog transmitters when the dtv system is in place at this point is an unfair burden on them and a waste of spectrom space. If we are going to wait until everybody is ready we might as well forget ever getting the change done.
since when should “Entertainment” be subsidised by the government?
Also, Our Constitution does not mandate us to watch TV.. “by law”.
Again.. the bigger picture should really be (for those of you drones out there) why the mandated push… enouh to spend billions on it?
Umm….Peter? You need to keep reading.
The *Senate* voted to delay. This still needs to pass the House, and be signed into law.
So, unless you’re blogging from the future…..
D’oh. You’re absolutely right. Let this be a lesson to you all. Don’t post when you’re half awake and a couple cocktails under.
I understand the argument. Plenty of Americans, including shut-ins and retirees, rely on broadcast TV for news, weather, and other info in addition to the mainstay entertainment. But I still think it was a mistake to delay. That’s 2.5 million people who could have purchased HDTV technology and stimulated the economy. That’s almost enough to save Circuit City! I think delay shifts costs to broadcasters who are still supporting dual-mode operations. If the administration and Congress had supported the switch, it would have signalled that this government means what it says, takes deadlines seriously, and delivers on time. It goes to credibility. But my main concern is that they have much more important things to do. This is political pandering and a failure to make hard choices.
Ted & Ivan are right, people won’t be ready in June either. And Derringer is correct that TV isn’t a guaranteed right. The vouchers were a nice generous touch, but the government doesn’t have to guarantee that everyone gets one.
This somewhat opinionated piece neglects to mention the huge financial and service backfire this stupid piece of legislative dawdling will cause. This is liberal government pandering at its shining best.
Emergency service bandwidth was auctioned off to take the TV frequencies, not to mention hundreds of millions of investment and installation in digital equipment REQUIRED by government for the stations, not to mention a “midnight” switch-over, always a hairy tech episode.
I’ve got the box. I’ve got the antenna. I was getting 5-6 stations. Now I get two.
I say, delay the conversion forever if the broadcasters can’t send out decent signals.
And no, I don’t live somewhere out in the booonies. I’m in town, half way between downtown and our state capitol complex.
Let the change go as planned. People will get the boxes. They’ll go on sale – no store chain will want to be left with a bunch sitting on a shelf while everyone else sells out. The comments about the same people not being ready are dead on. Maybe we need to have a day a week where the analog signal is shut off. That will give people a further heads-up – as if they should need one. Just do the switch…
@etim — You might need a better antenna. I AM in the boonies, and my analog antenna got me 6 stations. I got the digital box and the same rabbit ears – I got 12 stations (albeit 3 in Spanish, which I don’t comprehend). But then I got a powered antenna, still for use in the house, and I’ve got 15 digital stations. I’d get more, I think, if I were to put up an outdoor antenna, but it’s just not worth it to me.
fuck digital TV, damn toy society
I agree Guy—”it’s just not worth it to me.” either.
I’m not about to lay down more $$ for yet another piece of antenna tech that may or may not work–just to keep connected to a programming source of marginal quality.
If the stations can’t get their collective acts together, then I’ll just get the few programs I really enjoy off the net. For free. Without commercials.
To the broadcasters—you need to remember: less viewers = less profits—so don’t try to lay the expense and hassle of the new tech on us. It’s your jobs we’re talking about here.
There’s no way I’ll pay to watch TV. Especially the garbage on “our” corporate run airwaves.
For every hour of broadcast time on TV’s, there is 30 minutes of advertising.
If I can’t get a signal or as is happening now, the signal fades in and out, I’m unplugging the damn thing. BTW, I live in a big metropolitan area.