Calls for delaying digital TV switchover (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Similar concept; AM broadcasts continued with the same programming for many years after FM hit the national consciousness. The talk radio ghettoization of AM radio is a fairly recent phenomena.

 

[Michelle Schmid]

It doesn't even say w/in what timeframe people have to request replacements for their expired coupons. It seems that the people on a waiting list are going to be on there for an indefinite amount of time . . .

 

[DaveF]

And likewise, there's no vouchers for HD FM upgrades: FM still broadcasts and current radios continue to work.

This transition is completely different from past changes, because for the first time the old signal is being turned off.

 

[Greg_S_H]

You and I are paying that $40 to the retail stores. Never forget where the government gets its money.

 

[todd s]

I guess my biggest beef is that tv is not a right. So why should we (taxpayers) have to pay for people to upgrade their tv's?

 

[Jon Martin]

Excellent point.

 

[Nelson Au]

For months, during the local news broadcasts, at the end of the weather forecasts, the weatherman and anchors say how many days are left till the digital switchover. What was funny to see today is that they now say, "you now have 128 days till the switchover. So you now have more time to get ready for the DTV."

And the consumer reporter has been covering the switchover quite a few times and was on the recent times when the local stations all did the tests to see if your TV is ready or not for DTV. So much awareness here. And I'm sure that there's still a lot of confusion.

 

[Brian^K]

That isn't strictly the case, here... at least the money for the coupons isn't coming from tax revenues. Instead, the money is coming from the proceeds of the spectrum auction. Less than $2B has been allocated for the CECB program, but the spectrum already auctioned raised over $19B.

 

[todd s]

I have heard that some people are using the coupons to buy the boxes and then selling them on ebay.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I stand corrected. Thank you for the information.

 

[Jon Martin]

Well, the government is essentially saying that TV has to be broadcast in a certain way. They are saying that analog TV has to end. So, they are forcing everyone to buy a converter box.

 

[todd s]

I understand. But, again it comes down to this. Is tv a right? This changeover has been discussed and debated for years. It wasn't like they just decided yesterday to change. People had time to put a few bucks away and get a converter. Put $4 a month away for a year and they have enough for the converter. Or how about instead of giving coupons to everyone who wants it. Save them for people who meet some income requirement (ie-seniors or low income people).

 

[DaveF]

This is a government mandated change in national technology that completely obviates all TVs from just five years ago -- such as the $1800 Sony WEGA HDTV I bought in 2002 or the $1800 50" RPTV a friend bought in 2004. Without converter boxes, everyone with a TV just a few years old would be forced to buy one regardless (or a digital tuner for hundreds of dollars, or subscribe to cable for hundreds per year).

Evening ignoring the question of "fairness", it would be politically impossible to do this without the voucher program.

And perhaps the vouchers aren't paid for by we the taxpayers, but by the sale of the frequency bands freed up by this transition.

 

[David Deeb]

Sadly, it's been decided and changed and decided and changed and decided and changed and decided and changed and decided and changed. I agree with you though.

 

[todd s]

I understand that. But, what I am saying is that someone who can afford an $1800 tv. Should be able to pay $40 for a converter. If we are talking about a low income family or a fixed income senior whose 20" cheapo tv is not going to work. Then I have no problem with the voucher.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Arguably, yes. The radio spectrum is a public resource, owned by the People. The reason the FCC exists is because it is also a finite resource; if everybody was allowed to use the spectrum as they wished, it would be useless since everyone would be broadcasting ontop of one another. So in 1927, Congress created a comission to regulate radio in the "public interest, convenience, and necessity." The perview of that regulation was extended to television upon the development of that technology. Part of the deal with getting a radio or TV license is that the broadcaster has to commit to programming in the "public interest"; use of the limited public resource for profit confers a responsibility to provide a public service. Since the government is the steward of the public airwaves, it arguably has a responsibility to ensure accessibility.
The question is what that responsibility entails. Most of us think that the bar has been met on the consumer outreach side of things. And ironing out the technical problems is going to prove to be a many year endeavor. Because DTV broadcasts are capped at much lower power than analog TV broadcasts, and because the fringe reception for DTV is basically useless, a massive infrastructure investment is going to need to follow so that new transmission towers are put into place to plug the holes.

 

[Nelson Au]

That was very well written Adam.

 

[Brian^K]

The government auctioned bandwidth for exclusive commercial use, so it is not true that access to all national resources is a right.

What makes television a right is that it is used to distribute emergency response notifications.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Fortunately, that's not what I said. The government has auctioned off licenses to use spectrum since 1994. In so doing, consumer devices and telecommunications have been improved greatly. While many of these are subscriber services, they provide an option for the public that did not previously exist. And in many cases, the licenses come with responsibilities. In the most recent auction, for instance, all C-block licenses must be used with so-called "unlocked" devices. On this band of spectrum, the licenses holders cannot keep phones and other devices not designed specifically for their network out. All D-block licenses must share bandwidth with a national public safety network, the original justification for the auction. The exact rules for this spectrum are still being developed.

 

[nolesrule]

Some stations will be switching over on the February date as planned, such as local PBS station, which says they no longer want to pay the extra $10,000/month in electricity bills for the analog broadcasts. The GMs of the network stations are deciding together what to do, except apparently our FOX affiliate which is corporate owned and thus will not switch over till June.

One of the prime arguments for switching over now locally is it will force the few thousand people who still aren't ready to transition now, rather than 2 weeks into hurricane season.