Digital TV switch: Delays? Again?

January 9, 2009 · Posted in Media Criticism 

The Washington Post reported yesterday that Barack Obama is signalling a desire to delay the full-scale switch to digital television that is set to occur Feb. 17.

Federal officials said this week that the billion-dollar program to distribute $40 coupons to defray the cost of the boxes has run out of money and that the 1.1 million consumers already on the waiting list might not receive them in time for the Feb. 17 transition.

Projections suggest that the number of consumers on the waiting list to get a coupon could climb to 5 million by early February, increasing by hundreds of thousands every day, the Obama transition team said.

“With coupons unavailable, support and education insufficient, and the most vulnerable Americans exposed, I urge you to consider a change to the legislatively-mandated analog cutoff date,” John Podesta, co-chair of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team, wrote in the letter to leaders of the Senate and House commerce committees.

Judging from the amount of poorly-produced, hokey promotional advertisements I’ve seen over the Christmas holidays – not to mention the numerous web sites about the transition – there’s some serious fear in the television industry that a sizable percentage of consumers won’t be able to make the DTV switch smoothly.

If you were psychoanalyzing the TV industry based on those ads, you’d surmise that there are going to be angry villagers with pitchforks and torches storming the gates at TV stations come Feb. 18.

But the problem is this has been something that’s been in the works for over 10 years. Congress first started down this road in 1996!

Broadcasters dragged their feet making a transition to DTV for years until they finally got a mandate for Feb. 17, 2009. Now, everybody wants to move the yardsticks again.

Personally, I’m not affected by the transition, but I do think it says something wrong about our country when we can’t even manage to make this transition smoothly. Industry and government share blame for mismanaging something that’s been on the calendar for a long time now.

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Comments

  • Development of digital technologies occurs prompt rates. Does not lag behind progress and digital TV. Speaking about digital TV, we first of all mean satellite TV. The digital satellite TV becomes more and more accessible to simple users. The market paid satellite tv also is not necessary on a place. The new digital standard of TV of high clearness HDTV actively develops and takes root. The satellite TV becomes more and more directed on the spectator. Besides digital quality of the image, advantage of satellite systems also is also the extensive cover zone of the companion.
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