Digital Delayed?

[Dante]

Can't government get anything right?? Even the small stuff they have to get involved in and fug it up. It' been 3 years to get ready for this thing. If your not ready, too fvkin bad. And 1.34 billion was allocated for coupons?? TV is not necessary to survive. Why the fug is government giving coupons out in the first place for??

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...9012303608.html

[Just Jack]

The bill would allow broadcasters to turn off analog signals before the June 12 deadline

 

Can't remember what station I was watching the other night, but they said during the newscast they would turn off their signal on the 17th.

[Chilly]

Can't government get anything right?? Even the small stuff they have to get involved in and fug it up. It' been 3 years to get ready for this thing. If your not ready, too fvkin bad. And 1.34 billion was allocated for coupons?? TV is not necessary to survive. Why the fug is government giving coupons out in the first place for??

 

Because they are making a shitload off of it.

[finknottle]

Because they are making a shitload off of it.

 

No, actually, it was lobbying by the decoder manufacturers. They saw a one-time opportunity to sell a zillion converter boxes, but only if the government stepped in and made them essentially free to the consumer. So they led the effort in saying that something had to be done so that the poor huddled masses still watching TV over the airwaves wouldn't be left behind.

 

God forbid they should get cable or buy a new TV.

[GG]

You're all wrong. Digital transition started with the Telecom Act of '96, and it's taken this long to get all things lined up for the transition, as it involved assigning new frequencies to existing broadcasters, waiting for them to upgrade their signals, and launch the new digital broadcasts. All new TVs built after a certain date had to include the new digital tuners - that was phased in based on TV size. The larger the TV, the sooner they had to include the tuner. Now all new TV have to have a digital tuner.

 

Since digital broadcasts are more spectrally efficient, the FCC would take away 90 MHz of spectrum from the broadcasters and auction it off to cell carriers.

 

Although only about 10%-15% of people still get their TV from rabbit ears, Congress will not pass resolutions that will disenfranchise that large amount of people, especially when something as politically vital as local TV stations.

 

The coupon program was put in place to ease the transition. The goal was for CE manufacturers to deliver $40-$50 boxes to the market, and the government would subsidize each purchase by $40. The government would get that money through auctioning off the spectrum. FCC received $19 billion in the auction, the coupon program cost about $2 billion.

 

But "strangely" when the $40 coupons arrived, there were no $40 boxes to be had. There were many $70 boxes, however.

 

As far as most data shows, although many people didn't know about the transition, many still bought the new boxes. The trial transition in Wilmington NC went without a hitch.

 

The political wrangling about it now is purely political theater. There should be no reasonable reason to delay the transition.

[stuckincincy]

There should be no reasonable reason to delay the transition.

 

None whatsoever. The advertising blitz has been relentless, for a long time.

 

Question :

 

I wonder if the local stations that have run constant spots about the transition get to "deduct" them, so so speak, from FCC requirements for public programming/service?

 

They certainly have a revenue concern about viewers - thick-skulled as they may be - not getting their programming.

[GG]

Question :

 

I wonder if the local stations that have run constant spots about the transition get to "deduct" them, so so speak, from FCC requirements for public programming/service?

 

They certainly have a revenue concern about viewers - thick-skulled as they may be - not getting their programming.

 

Probably. But in reality that requirement has been whittled down a lot over the years.

[UConn James]

You're all wrong. Digital transition started with the Telecom Act of '96, and it's taken this long to get all things lined up for the transition, as it involved assigning new frequencies to existing broadcasters, waiting for them to upgrade their signals, and launch the new digital broadcasts. All new TVs built after a certain date had to include the new digital tuners - that was phased in based on TV size. The larger the TV, the sooner they had to include the tuner. Now all new TV have to have a digital tuner.

 

Since digital broadcasts are more spectrally efficient, the FCC would take away 90 MHz of spectrum from the broadcasters and auction it off to cell carriers.

 

Although only about 10%-15% of people still get their TV from rabbit ears, Congress will not pass resolutions that will disenfranchise that large amount of people, especially when something as politically vital as local TV stations.

 

The coupon program was put in place to ease the transition. The goal was for CE manufacturers to deliver $40-$50 boxes to the market, and the government would subsidize each purchase by $40. The government would get that money through auctioning off the spectrum. FCC received $19 billion in the auction, the coupon program cost about $2 billion.

 

But "strangely" when the $40 coupons arrived, there were no $40 boxes to be had. There were many $70 boxes, however.

 

As far as most data shows, although many people didn't know about the transition, many still bought the new boxes. The trial transition in Wilmington NC went without a hitch.

 

The political wrangling about it now is purely political theater. There should be no reasonable reason to delay the transition.

 

I was going to jump in and then I saw your post.

 

This transition has been in the works for a long time. First the broadcasters dragged their feet and received an extension, and now everyday people get to drag their feet and will receive an extension. Fair is fair, n'est pas?

 

Over in the consumer forum and OTW, I've made several posts on this subject, how I got a tuner and upgraded our antenna system (we are OTA-only on the outer cusps of three teevee markets). We've been waiting for the "date certain" (Could govts please stop ^%$&ing using this term?!!? B/c it's never certain when govt gets involved, the only certainty is delay) for a while b/c many things are were riding on that date. Now, everything looks like it'll get f--ked up, contracts will have to be redrawn, teevee stations are going to be spending more serious coin to power and upkeep an analog signal (~$100K per month for WGBH in Boston), the auction-winners won't be able to use something they paid $19B for another several months, frequencies will have to be reallocated/rejiggered by the FCC making their job unnecessarily harder and taking away from real problems.... all because pols are worried that people who have to be dragged off their dead asses to do anything, little old grandmas and Jose won't have teevee on the 17th.

 

This was a clusterf--k already, and now delaying it is literally only going to create 20 times the clusterf--k.

 

And it sends the message to one and all that all you need to do is pretend like you don't 'get it' and the govt will cave to your failure to prepare despite 3 ads every hour telling you that analog is ending and come hold your hand.

 

But Hutchison expressed support for Rockefeller's bill, in part because he agreed not to seek another delay, she said.

 

I'll believe that when I see it. On 1 June, he's going to be concerned that midgets have been unfairly treated by the digital transition and seek a delay to 4 June 2023.