Consumers Union Wants Congress To Delay Digital TV Transition

from the oh-please,-just-get-it-over-with dept

Now, we all agree that the FCC has screwed up the conversion to digital TV for over-the-air TV watchers, especially with the "coupon" program running out of money. But, it's still pretty ridiculous for Consumers Union to ask Congress to delay the transition (found via Consumers Unions' newly owned Consumerist).

The transition to digital TV has been delayed for years. It was amazing that we finally got a hard deadline of February 2009 given how many forces were fighting against it. Part of the problem was always some ridiculous sliding scale of when we'd be "ready." But, a hard deadline was set, and now it's important to just get it over with. The end result will be much better for consumers, because the old spectrum will finally be put to good use where it can provide an awful lot of value. Yes, the transition coupon program has been poorly run. Yes, it would be better if we figured out a better way (even now) to get converter boxes to people. Yes, there are still a number of people who haven't gone out and picked up a convertor box. Yes, there will be some confused people who turn on their TV and discover it won't work, but it's a very small number of people at this point, and given how much time they've had to deal with it, having their TVs not work should be the final kick in the pants to move forward. There's simply no good reason to delay the transition yet again. Update: Unfortunately, it looks like the incoming Obama administration supports a delay as well.

Filed Under: confusion, conversion coupons, digital tv
Companies: consumers union

Trying To Figure Out How DTV Conversion Program Could Run Out Of Coupons

from the something-doesn't-make-sense dept

There are plenty of reports going around about how the federal government's program to supply coupons for TV digital converter boxes has run out of money while plenty of folks who need them still haven't converted (meaning their TVs won't work next month). Because there's still some confusion about this, it bears repeating: this conversion does not matter in the slightest for anyone who uses cable or satellite TV. It only impacts those who just get over-the-air TV through an antenna. Yet apparently, somewhere around 7% of those people aren't yet prepared for the changeover -- though, assuming they care (i.e., they watch TV) they'll figure out what went wrong pretty soon.

What I'm still trying to figure out, though, is how the program ran out of money. The setup of the program now seems pretty silly. Basically, the feds offered coupons to people to use when buying the boxes, and the feds funded the difference. But why didn't the feds just buy the boxes itself and sell them off at a discount? Part of the problem now is that many of the coupons haven't been redeemed, and no one's sure if they will be redeemed or not -- leaving the amount of money available in question. It seems like there are about 30 different ways that uncertainty could have been averted, such as by just having the sellers report the sales to the Feds and get the "coupon fee" directly. Either way, it seems like yet another program where the FCC didn't do a very good job planning out how this transition would work.

Filed Under: confusion, conversion coupons, digital tv