Finally. Sanity reigns in the House of Representatives:
Two days after the Senate unanimously approved a four-month delay of the digital television transition, the House of Representatives did not pass the same proposal on Wednesday, “leaving the current Feb. 17 deadline intact for now,” the Associated Press reports.
“The 258-168 vote failed to clear the two-thirds threshold needed for passage in a victory for GOP members,” according to the A.P.
The legislation’s failure means that the nation’s television stations will have to switch from analog to digital broadcasting by Feb. 17, unless Congress takes other steps to delay the transition.
Fuck yes. There’s simply no way to get everyone caught up to speed, and something absurd like four-fifths of Americans have cable anyway, making a digital converter box unnecessary. Just flip the switch and let the laggers sort it out.
House Defeats Bill to Delay Digital TV Switch [TV Decoder]
Typical…”let the laggers sort it out.”
The laggers are the people who can’t afford cable. The laggers are the same people who are now on a waiting list for a coupon to help them pay for a converter box so that they can pay for something that they’ve been getting for free…that has been free for everyone.
So what is this is an issue that could effect 60 MILLION people. By all means, let’s not admit that he government screwed up their handling of this and pretend that nothing is wrong. After all, we have cable right? Who cares about anyone else? Who cares that the people hardest hit by this are already having problems making ends meet? Who cares that the people effected by this are already going to have a tough time paying for a converter box with a coupon, let alone without.
Who cares? It isn’t like these people have INTERNET access.
The laggers are people like my 88-year-old great aunt, who doesn’t have the money to get cable and whose VCR doesn’t want to work with the converter box to tape the soap opera she likes to watch. I’d really be ok with waiting a little while to give the laggers a little more time to get sorted out.
How long do you wait? It’s not like they JUST started talking about this yesterday. You’re never going to suction up every last person, and the current rate of people without ability to watch television when the changeover comes is like 4%. How low does that percent need to be until it’s okay to flip the switch?
This bill is far from defeated. It didn’t pass the special rules vote but still could be passed normally.
On one hand I know that we will never get everyone on board before the swich over, but on the other hand the transition hasn’t exactly been handled well. People in the early test market ended up calling 911 when their TVs didn’t work.
You’re right, you aren’t going to get everyone on board. However, when the measures put in place to HELP everyone get on board had horribly failed? Let us face facts, this whole transition is a mess. If this had been handled better, this could’ve been a lot smoother. Instead it has been a mess.
But again, it is really easy to get mad at the poor for not being able to upgrade. Talking about it and DOING something about it are two very different things.
Since outstanding coupons need to EXPIRE before new ones are released (because the entire program was woefully underfunded), there is a waiting list that goes FAR beyond the switchover date. So plenty of people are TRYING to make the switch, but can’t do it right now.
But sure, easier to blame them than the clowns who screwed up the transition in the first place.
I still don’t understand why they don’t phase it out rather then cut it off completely. Start blocking out 1hour increments. A “you need to upgrade” message could be shown. Hell, use the emergency broadcast system if need be: Beep, BEEP
Mark my words:
If anything is going to make the poor masses of middle america riot – it will be all televisions going black at once.
@5 Can you show me where anyone blamed the poor? I’ve re-read everything twice and I don’t see it.
No explicit blame of the poor, just a perceived correlation that between “no-cable” and poor. Of course that leaves out those people who always go on and on about how they don’t even own a television
How are we supposed to make progress in this country if we’re waiting for the lowest common denominator?
The DTV switch has been in the news (yes on analog signals) for two years, and the switch has been well-publicized for the last decade. It’s been delayed enough, let’s move on with it.
Nobody’s crying about the majority of websites that aren’t usable over dialup connections or require plugins that won’t run on 10+ year old PCs/Operating systems.
Why is it so unreasonable to spend $40 on a box that allows you to continue using your ancient TV to continue getting content for free?
There was a TV series I watched where they took the televisions of people awat for a period of 2 weeks/a month. After the initial withdrawal symptoms had cleared up, people were much happier and the quality of their lives and relationships was improved immensely.
@CERENOMUS
The laggers are the same people who are now on a waiting list for a coupon to help them pay for a converter box so that they can pay for something that they’ve been getting for free…that has been free for everyone.
The signal will be just as free after the transition as it was before the transition, the only difference is that now it is a digital signal instead of an analog one.
Yes, people will have to buy a $60 converter box (or a new TV) if they have an analog TV, and don’t have cable, etc. But complaining about having to buy a $60 box in order to watch TV makes no more sense than complaining that you have to buy a TV.
If you can’t afford the $60 to upgrade, then don’t watch TV. TV is a luxury, not a right (and to answer the inevitable question: no, I wouldn’t want to live without a TV, but the same can be said about a number of luxuries I own; I’d rather have no TV than no MP3 player). The excuse about needing a TV for service announcements is also moot, as someone could buy a radio cheaper than the $20 they would have to fork over if they had a coupon.
Why the ban on analog signals, anyway? Does this clear up some spectrum to be reallocated to other stuff?
“let the laggers sort it out.”
They are NOT called Laggers.
They are called the poor and elderly. I hope your Grandma smacks you HARD, but as i can see your family didn’t raise you better, so she probably won’t.
@BEVASTRON REPAIRMAN
The spectrum that is being opened up by the transition was broken into parts and auctioned off last year. The auction of block C was very high profile. It was the one that Google, Verizon and others wre battling over. If you search Wireless Spectrum Auction, you should be able to find a ton of info on it.
@GABRIELM #6:
“If anything is going to make the poor masses of middle america riot – it will be all televisions going black at once.”
This is why I’m hoping they will flip the switch as soon as possible. I agree that the transition has been bungled horribly, but I’m looking forward to people getting all riled up over it. I couldn’t care less about the spectrum issues.
@ #12:
IIRC, it clears up spectrum that has already been auctioned off, which is another reason to go ahead and rip off the bandaid, if a rather big-corporation-friendly one.
@ #11:
Exactly. Radio will keep people informed of weather and other safety emergencies. Certain aspects of this transition seem to have been botched, but certain (other?) aspects will probably still be botched come the next deadline, as well as there now being a sense of disbelief that it will ever happen among those who have not been proactive so far (and obviously some who are not ready had extenuating circumstances, but I’d wager a sizable majority simply never got around to it).
Good. First time in a long while I’ve seen the GOP do something beneficial.
Why did they run out of the coupons?
Maybe because people that could afford a converter took the coupon anyway? Maybe because the people who were too dumb to know they didn’t need a converter took the coupon and bought one?
The govt. had a freaking Website to get the coupon!
If you can afford $10/mo. for dial-up, you don’t need a coupon.
The reason the ran out of coupons is that there was no means-testing for Need.
DTV is only “required” to send out even more channels of crap. I’ve had the opportunity to see digital TV in action twice. Both times it was crap, one losing blocks and freezing occasionaly, the other looking over-compressed like something off of YouTube. I am not impressed, and don’t see any real need for the switch.
Yup, the “Public” airwaves have been cut up and sold. But it is really nice to see the sympathy for the poor that so many folks here have. But I suppose since they don’t read Boing Boing…. Only 60 million people need to worry about this at all right? So F*ck ‘em.
This entire thing has been botched, so rather than slow things down and get it right, let’s just blunder ahead and make it a bigger mess. Wow…the Republicans have learned nothing from the last eight years.
60 Million? You keep repeating that. [Citation Needed].
“pay for something that they’ve been getting for free”
I wasn’t aware that televisions were free! Where do I go to pick my free TV up??
More seriously, if you have friends, family, or neighbors that aren’t ready, help them get ready. My next door neighbor had no idea what to do or where to get the box, so I went and bought them for her. No big deal. I haven’t installed them yet, but I will be. Be a good neighbor /grandson /nephew /etc, people!
It’s more like 6.5 million:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-dtv29-2009jan29,0,1220811.story
Ceronomus, 60 million is 1/5 of the population. You’re quoting that because John said 4/5ths have cable. Well, here’s news for you: a significant portion of that 60 million either (1) have a digital TV already, (2) have a converter box already, or (3) don’t have a TV.
So, as Pork says, [citation needed].
Larsrc, I’ve watched digital TV and it’s much better than analog. It had a clear, high def signal, and had subchannels that, while they were lower quality, had content that ordinarily would not be on broadcast TV. My setup is a bit prone to interference, but that’s because it’s a pair of rabbit ears in a basement. I watched about 30 minutes of it so far – the Obama infomercial before the election. But if you have a decent antenna that’s not in a basement, it’s better, and in most cases the reception is much better than analog.
Higher resolution, greater color depth, more content, better reception, and reduced spectrum usage all seem like excellent reasons to me.
And while the “do-it-now” crowd are being excoriated as heartless bastards, remember that a portion of the freed-up spectrum will be used to allow police and fire departments to dramatically upgrade their telecommunications infrastructure.
” ‘We don’t have the capability to talk to anybody that we want to talk to,’ said Chris Berndt, fire chief of the Western Taney County Fire Protection District. ‘This is not an efficient way to communicate.’ ”
Cash-strapped public broadcasters are also eager to have the switch take place:
“Ozarks Public Television has spent $5.2 million upgrading its facilities in Springfield and Joplin, said Arlen Diamond, director of broadcast services for the two public broadcasting channels, KOZK/Springfield and KOZJ/Joplin.
” ‘We are looking forward to as speedy a move to full digital broadcasting as possible, because we, I think like all broadcasters, are just ready to get on with this,’ Diamond said.”
All this just in southern Missouri. It’s time to pull the bandaid.
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20090126/NEWS01/901260358/1007
@20 CERENOMUS
“Yup, the “Public” airwaves have been cut up and sold.”
You know, because it was merely our overwhelming kindness and respect for NBC and pals which stopped other people from broadcasting at the same frequency. You do realize that the FCC is responsible for more than just fining networks that show Janet Jackson’s nipple, right?
While the shift from analog to digital is a “major shift,” the overall system is pretty much the same as it always was. This is hardly the Draconian coup you make it out to be. The Networks pay money to the FCC in order secure a certain bandwidth which they are then free to broadcast whatever they want (within the confines of the law and FCC regulations). Anyone who has a receiver is free to watch the content provided by the networks at no extra cost.
“But I suppose since they don’t read Boing Boing…. Only 60 million people need to worry about this at all right? So F*ck ‘em.”
I will agree with you that everyone here hates those people who are not ready for the switch, and have said some vehemently hateful things in this comments section. I’ve never seen such rudeness on a post before. Also, I still can’t believe that right before the vote, Joe Barton (R, Texas) made a speech in front of the house about how he planned on going to all 60 Million people’s homes just so he could through garbage at them (“Since these luddites are [America's] garbage”).
I will tentatively chime in on the “let the laggers sort it out” side.
– Television is not a right.
– The signal will be as free after the switch as it was before. The hardware required to pick up those signals and process them into video and sound, on the other hand, was never free.
– I’ve been hearing about this for YEARS. And I’ve been hearing ads and announcements about it on TV and the radio, very very often, for MONTHS. So it’s not like this snuck up on people.
And please pardon my ignorance (I’m being sincere here), but why do you say this has been handled badly? Is it because the coupon program is a mess (which it is) or are there other reasons? (When I say “I’ve been hearing about this for years”, to be honest I wasn’t paying too much attention since I don’t rely on the airwaves to get my TV shows).
“I’ve never seen such rudeness on a post before.”
What rudeness? And what other sites do you read, Pollyannaweb?
21 – I’m using Brownlee’s number and actually using the population of the US to put it into perspective. You can Google that easily enough.
The fact remains that this isn’t someone trying to STOP the conversion…it is the Government trying to step back and take the time to fix a huge problem in the rollout. The same people who will gladly scream about how a new product release was handled horribly are, interestingly, the same people who are all for pushing ahead even though we KNOW that this is screwed up.
So instead of taking time to fix it, let’s just screw things up.
Yup, the Republican party hasn’t changed. Great way to score cheap points with their base though.
@28 DCULBERSON
“What rudeness? And what other sites do you read, Pollyannaweb?”
That was meant to be a sarcastic comment. CERNOMUS keeps accusing people of blaming those who are not ready for the transition. I guess it didn’t really come through very well, sorry about that (note: this apology is not meant to be sarcastic).
@29 CERENOMUS
“The same people who will gladly scream about how a new product release was handled horribly are, interestingly, the same people who are all for pushing ahead even though we KNOW that this is screwed up.”
As an owner of the overly defective XBox 360, 98% of people being ready sounds damn good to me ( 98% based on the 6.5 million number cited above, and what Google tells me is the current US population). Actually, 98% is a good number overall. A non-insignificant proportion of the 6.5 million is almost certainly people who: don’t really care/wouldn’t be ready no matter what the government did.
“Yup, the Republican party hasn’t changed. Great way to score cheap points with their base though.”
Nothing like partison cheap shots to strengthen a good argument.
Oh, so let me get this straight. We KNOW there is a problem with the roll out. We COULD take a little time to fix it. IGNORING the problem instead, that is good government? Yeah….Sure.
@31 Ceremonus
Ive been looking over some of your past posts in other threads, and you don’t strike me as a trollish person, or even someone I would tend to disagree with (although I could be wrong on that). So I think a different tact would be useful to prevent this from degrading further. Let’s skip past any snark on either side and get to the heart of it.
“Oh, so let me get this straight. We KNOW there is a problem with the roll out. We COULD take a little time to fix it. IGNORING the problem instead, that is good government? Yeah….Sure.”
Those of us against the delay (to play the dangerous game of generalizing how we all feel) aren’t denying that there were problems with the coupon rollout. Overall though, we feel that the problems were minor, and that those that remain would not be solved by a 4 month delay. The changeover has been a long process, and we worry that every delay brings it closer to vaperware status. It’s kind of a deminishing returns problem, every delay has a cost (not just financial) attached to it, and at this point, any further delay would not help enough people to make it worthwhile (that sounds heartless maybe, but I merely mean that a delay will do more harm than good). Anyway, after the last 8 or so years, I am not sure whether any of us know what good government looks like
BCJ, I’m sorry too, I was apparently confused at the moment.
As you get to, the root question is: will a delay help? I don’t think so. Ceronomus, how do you think a delay will help if the prior delay(s) didn’t already help? Time alone doesn’t fix something that’s screwed up.
Additionally, there’s a point at which you won’t get a significant benefit from additional work. I think we’ve pretty much reached that point. I can’t be sure, but who can?
I’m not invested in it either way, though, so I don’t get too worked up about it.
The insinuation that John or Joel or most of us here constitute part of the GOP’s base is laughable.
#33 – See, I know people who ARE going to be affected by this. They are STILL on the waiting list to get a coupon. The program was flawed and it really CAN be fixed by throwing a little time and money at it.
The program was underfunded, which can be fixed. Yes, delaying without funding won’t fix it. But put the two together and the whole issue is fixed.
This isn’t a difficult proposition. This is SIMPLE. Yes, time alone doesn’t fix it, but without time, extra funding won’t matter as it is too late for most people on the waiting list to get a coupon.
I find the whole “Let the laggards sort it out” attitude is simply repugnant, especially coming from people who really ARE unaffected by this whole thing.
This has been delayed a half dozen times already (since it became official — before that dozens more) simply because no one wanted to be pro-active about it.
The coupon was arguably a great fix for several reasons, but was implemented as half-assed as possible. Real advertising for this is less than six months old (did I mention YEARS of delay) I am a Canadian an hour’s drive from the border, and my experience is this: PBS doesn’t talk about it, local FOX affiliate won’t run the the ads, only the broadcast-only WB channel gives good information, once or twice in primetime.
This is a recipe for surprise. Anyone read joystiq? They announced on their webpage, but not their RSS feeds, uniting their console/portable channels by manufacturer, and when it happened, all hell broke loose until the filters were introduced (in a few days)
Summarily, delay is OK if it allows the coupon program and information dissemination to correct (up the ads) but if their intention is to screw over anyone who has not yet bought an HDTV, I guess they should be honest about their evil!
If you can’t afford a $40 one-off investment, you probably have more pressing problems than whether you will be able to watch the next episode of Oprah or not.
$650 million is going to the Digital-To-Analog Converter Box Program “to ensure a timely conversion of analog to digital television.”
That’s more than the Navy gets for maintenance, more than the Indians get for infrastructure, more than the Small Business Administration gets for making loans, and of course, more important to a “timely” economic recovery.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1/text
Some of these people, however, have just sat on their arses and procrastinated about getting up to speed… and I don’t care how sad a story you weave about the person you know who hasn’t gotten a coupon or is having a problem with the box…
Making sure a small fraction of Americans don’t lose their television (oh for god’s sake, it’s a TV), is not worth shrugging the cost of the screw up off onto the shoulders of others by wasting millions of dollars of donations that will damage the budgets of public television stations.
Somehow I don’t see punishing non-profits as being a viable course of action to make sure a minority of people can still watch TV.
Yes, public television is still TV just like the soap operas people are going to miss out on, but it’s funded by donations, by people who thought that their money was going to be contributing something useful to their community, instead of being pissed away against the stations’ will by fickle-minded legislators.
In case you were not aware, donations to non-profits across the board are already significantly down. Wasting the money that these organizations are still receiving is simply moronic and simple-minded.
Where the hell does this “Television is not a right” bull come from? What does this statement mean? If I’m a bad boy you’ll come and take my TV away? If I’m at the mercy of a screwed-up program to provide coupons for converter boxes, tough luck. If I live on the fringe of a station’s analogue signal and, after the switch, my fancy converter box is worthless for that station, aw heck, I never had a “right” to watch TV in the first place…
Yes, I know, the idea of “public airwaves” is passe. Look! I can get loads more of awesome sub-channels! Look at all the white space!
Good luck with that. Oh, and if you can’t afford $40, screw you and the Oprah you rode in on, right?
AAAAAAAAWWWW!!!!111!!!!!
FUCK the poor. Get a job, losers!
If you can’t afford a $60 piece of shit that will Fail in 6mo, screw you. Get a new TV.
And you whiney bitches, get your Grammy, neighbor, sad-sac-non-existent-hairy-lesbian(girlfriend) a Fucking converter on your own. I ‘aint payin.
Stop your … oooohhh you’re so mean to not give a shit about the poor … get out of momma’s basement and help, if you Really care.
It’s the Hope&Changey thing to do!
Elvis,
“I’m at the mercy of a screwed-up program”
Start living by the ‘rules’ and paying taxes.
Then, start bitching.
P.S.: ELVIS would have shot you with the (loaded) Nickle-plated .45 he presented to Nixon in the Oval Office.
In the end it’s a judgement call among rights.
Myself I’m trying to judge citizens’ “right” to watch television against non-profits’ right to keep a budget according to promises made to them by the government. Not suprisingly, the right for a non-profit not to lose out on a significant amount of money that wasn’t in their budget comes out ahead.
Fickle wishy-washiness like this is no doubt also costing businesses a lot of money, too. We are not going to solve this situation by allowing the government to waste huge sums other people’s money with continuous indecision and strife.
This is one case where staying the course is the lesser evil.
#40: I don’t know about your particular situation but you might try a fractal antenna. There’s a decent howto on instructables to make your own, it’s very approachable. http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_make_a_fractal_antenna_for_HDTV_DTV_plus_/
A proper fractal antenna can cram the equivalent of a large satellite dish or bulky directional antenna into something that can fit quite unobtrusively indoors. The technology is the reason that cellphones now no longer have visible antennas jutting out of them and yet get better reception than older generations despite it.
Ceronomus, why don’t you go buy them a converter box? You don’t actually NEED a coupon to buy the box.
So, defeating the delay of the inevitable is what’s considered a “GOP victory” these days? Good thing they’re still doing God’s work. And by “God” I mean “Comcast”.
The government can quickly get out of this situation by buying converter boxes (@ $24 per unit — much cheaper than the $40 coupon and still allows wholesaler’s a profit) and then distributing one to each mailing address still on the list to receive a coupon.
There. Now everyone has one.
“If you can’t afford a $40 one-off investment, you probably have more pressing problems than whether you will be able to watch the next episode of Oprah or not.”
Yeah, like, “Can I afford a DTV box without the coupon that I never got, before the next hurricane season starts, while I’m still in my FEMA trailer, and the local radio stations I can catch that bothered to provide updates in the last storm have all shut down because of the economy?”
Then term “switch” to digital TV is misleading. Stations have already been broadcasting digital; The Feb date is simply when they get to turn their analog transmission equipment off (and sets with analog tuners go dark). The digital signal will just keep humming away as if nothing happened.
The stations save a little electricity but the big deal is that there are a number of concerns waiting for the spectrum for any number of purposes -noble and otherwise. Some of these endeavors could mean new jobs.
After crashing the economy (and everything else) in a tragic tale of ego and greed, I can’t see how anyone could agree with anything the GOP does but I grudgingly have to go with them on this. No matter how screwed up the program may have been, anyone unaware for two years that the switch was coming hasn’t been watching their TV in the first place.
And poor or not, saving $1.80 a month for the last two years would get you a 50 buck converter box without the 40 buck voucher; $3.56/mo, a 100 buck digital TV! Sure it’s a piddly 13″ screen but if you squint and sit close you’ll absorb the programming.
Everyone above who is in the real world has said it well, there has been enough time for ANYONE to plan for this. I don’t care how poor you are, how invalid you are, there has been TIME to plan for this. Laziness is not the responsibility of the rest of us and I’m so sick of that argument, especially when it come to the DTV switch over.
The other side of all this crying is to consider that the companies, large and small, that own the TV stations that have planned for this switch over can NOT afford to delay. Especially in today’s economy. For some a delay may even mean shutting that station’s doors for good and then the community loses a station and in most cases, a network affiliate. The cost of power alone to keep the analog transmitter going the unplanned for months can be astronomical. Keeping an analog transmitter going that is in its planned last days could also be costly.
Many companies are discussing, right now, switching over to their digital transmitter on the 17th no matter what the government decides. It’s that or lose a huge chunk of money or worse.
Many communities do have resources available for those who have procrastinated their way in the situation of not being able to get a converter box, especially for those that show REAL NEED. Check into that.
Also, remember that the low power stations in your area are not required to switch over at this time. Thus you’ll still receive them on your analog set.
For those complaining about using their VCR, obviously they know something about TV and at some point could afford a VCR, read the manual, call your local stations, whatever, but you will learn that you will need two converter boxes if you wish to record on one channel while watching another. If it’s just a matter of using your VCR to record what you’re watching or something while you’re not home/there/awake/alive, again read the manual, talk to someone, whatever, but you’ll find out that you must pass the signal through the box to your TV.
And anyone else with something to cry about, watch out for the day after the switch over, because if you’ve not read the manual and paid attention, you’ll get nothing on that new digital TV or with the converter box unless you re-scan.
Finally, receiving a TV station ( over the air, all of my comments refer to terrestrial signals) isn’t a RIGHT, it’s a privilege. And you get this privilege if you can afford the equipment AND if you live where you can receive the signal.
Also, for those that did get coupons and they expired, you CAN apply for one using a friend, relative, neighbor’s name and address. The coupons are transferable. This of course assumes that the coupon program mess will get straightened out. But shame on those who got the coupon and didn’t use it as well as those who procrastinated.
LARSRC: Obviously you didn’t read up on digital TV signals. What you were seeing was the result of poor reception. It’s all or nothing with a digital TV signal, no snowy picture that you can sort of watch. I highly suggest you read up on this.
A shining example of why geeks are not liberals and likely never will be.
I’m a geek and I’m a liberal and always will be. It is your propagandized view of liberals, NOEN, that needs a little shining (though perhaps living in your black and white world is oddly appropriate for this conversation!).
Behind all of the hoopla is really the notion that TV provides information that citizens need to make informed decisions and that’s why it is essential to make sure all citizens get it.
I don’t buy it. That might be true if TV’s were the only place to get this info but you can get a radio at the dollar store that will give you news. Or more precisely, you can get a radio that will spew the same mediocre, dumbed down, cage match newsertainment that plumps up the media conglomerates’ bottom line.
That so many citizens prefer this is the real tragedy of our times. When their sets go dark, citizens may well be better informed if they don’t get Fox News.
Okay, here’s the thing that’s bugging me: Why in the HELL does the federal gov’t. even give a sh*t whether or not everybody gets to watch TV. It’s only TV and on the list of necessities, TV falls far below food and shelter and health care. Our gov’t is very begrudging in helping people out with real needs, and is expert at hiding what funds are available to those who qualify. (I temporarily had to resort to public asst’nce a few years ago when I was getting a divorce and had a disabled kid)But here’s this advertising blitz that began over a year ago making sure everyone,regardless of income, can get two of these $40 gift cards. Can’t recall a time when the feds were running ad campaigns to make sure everyone had enough food or decent medical care. Since this govt’ discount takes the form of a “gift card”, how traceable is the card, the user and box purchased with the discount card?
You know, I was speaking to someone today about this, who hasn’t gotten the box because they merely forgot to bother… they don’t watch much TV anyway. It made me think.
Those surveys that were used to determine how many households still hadn’t picked up their converter box or coupons… the ones whose numbers were used as the argument in favor of this delay… did anyone actually bother to ask the people they were surveying whether they really cared about getting a converter box, to adjust the numbers accordingly?
It would be a terrifically amusing fuckup if even a noticeable minority of the reason for this was people who didn’t honestly even care about the issue.
I find it really weird that the government extends it’s deadline to give consumers more time to buy a box but
a)They don’t have funding anymore to issue the coupons and people are put on a waiting list..
b)People are advised to buy their converter boxes for the full price in the mean time while the industry stills keep churning out analog TV’s.
c)That the whole process is so inconvenient even when it does work–You need to fill out an application for the coupon and then wait for it to arrive in the mail….
What’s the whole point?
http://www.zenithdtt901.com/