Bad idea. The switchover will allow digital reception to improve, but more importantly by keeping the date, which has been in affect for over a year, will not alloow those who procrastinate to keep doing it. And I guarantee you you push it back three months, folks will still be analog when that date arrives
Be more creative in your solutions. Make the switch, and people can switchover and if necessary give them a tax break if it is in the national interest.
Yeah, OK, but demand for the converters is rising because a lot of people are planning to drop cable and satellite TV because the economy is crap, they’ve lost their jobs, whatever, and due to those same issues can’t afford to buy a new TV.
And yeah, maybe TV isn’t essential the way, say, food and water are but it still is one of major ways news is disseminated, including news of hazardous weather, traffic information, and so on which is local and pertinent. Loss of TV access will certainly have an impact, and the situation is significantly different than when that deadline was set. That doesn’t mean we should move the deadline, but I can see re-opening the topic for at least discussion.
Which was a really stupid idea in the first place. The Federal Government doesn’t pay for anything. Taxes from people and corporations do. Along with plenty of borrowing from the taxpayers. And the Feds were out of money from other stupid programs long before they decided the general population need free converter boxes. Over a billion dollars worth, if I recall.
I’m left wondering what would the true free market price of a converter box have been, absent the subsidy program (i.e. would the stable price point have ended up lower most of the year, with a rise around now due to late-adopter demand). And really, the subsidy itself was in order to facilitate the boxes to people who otherwise would have no TV access.
Couldn’t we just delay the MRAP’s for Iraq another year, and pass the savings on to consumers in the form of converter coupons? There’s gotta be some victory bonus for us John Does, doesn’t there?
No it wasn’t. The converter boxes are relatively expensive, running from $40-80 a pop, and the way the digital conversion works, the only people who need them are the people who get antenna service on an old TV…and most of those are people who can’t afford a new tv or cable, which means they’re the population least likely to have $40-80 to spend on luxuries. So unless you, as a government bureaucrat or elected official, want to have to explain why Aunt Mabel, who’s living off her social security checks, can’t watch her stories anymore, you’d better find some way to subsidize the cost of the converters.
How many are going to find that they need a new antenna? If you add the price of a new antenna and a converter box, you’re not too much below what a 20" digital CRT is selling for these days.
I’m not, honestly, overly sympathetic to those who have been putting off whatever they need to do when both the changeover and the coupon availability have been publicized for months if not years.
This is absolutely ludicrous. The DTV switch has been delayed for years over this shit. Pushing it back 3 months will change NOTHING whatsoever - anyone who can’t afford a box is not going to be able to afford it in 3 months, and even if coupons are made available they STILL aren’t going to get one as long as they know it’s a moving target. In 3 months we’ll hear the same reasons, the same rationales, the same excuses, and it will be pushed off again. If they’re going to delay it again they may as well just cancel the whole fucking thing and go back to analog.
How many people, honestly, really, with hard, verifiable, non-partisan citations, actually cannot afford a converter box? Anyone know? Is it more or less than 1%?
We’ve spent too much time and money on this already, pull the plug and let’s move on.
Yeah and if those dumbass procrastinators would stop watching tv all day and get a real job the extra cost wouldn’t be an issue!
I’ll tell you something Frank. The paychecks in my life over the past few years I’ve had an extra sixty bucks for a tv converter I spent them on fresh veggies for my family because that was the only time we got them after the garden dried up.
I will more than welcome another delay. And I might still be on analog in three months but at LEAST we’ll have an extra few hundred when the tax refund comes in. Maybe. I hope, because I really need my daily Caillou and Sid the Science Kid fix.
By the way I applied for a coupon months ago and I’m still waiting for it to show up.
Maybe that’s the reason for the delay. Damn that Obama wanting to look out for the poor any way he can. We simply don’t deserve any extra time.
Not that this is really related, but a few weeks ago at Target I saw a guy buy groceries at Target with his $40 coupon card. I didn’t really realize what he was doing until he was walking away, but I said to the cashier, “Wait, is that allowed?” She shrugged. “The card went through,” she said.
So save a dollar a week for a year. Or buy frozen veggies for a month. Or whatever.
Look, you make it clear that you have priorities in life that are higher than maintaining TV reception. That’s fine - really - that’s your call. But it is your call, your decision, and if it’s not that important to you, why should it be important to me?
Perhaps one useful fact might be of interest. Yes, the switchover has been announced. Yes, it’s arguable whether the government should be in the business of subsidizing converter boxes.
But if they’re not available – just plain out of stock and no certain date for a new shipment – which happens to be the case around here – then you’re telling anyone who has an analog TV and is not supporting Time-Warner or DirecTV’s bottom line, they just found themelves in possesion of an electronic 19" doorstop.
We’ll buy one. It’ll take about a week of Barb’s net salary, but we’ll do it. IF they’re available for sale.
As to why we haven’t yet – we like heat, electricity, and telephone. We have two luxuries: computer with Internet connection and TV. We pay for necessities first. I don’t go around crying poverty, but I am disgusted with people who have the attitude, “Just spend the money.” Sometimes the money’s just not there. We’ve survived; we will survive. Apparently, without TV . Which still makes us better off than much of the planet. But rest assured I see some of you in a new light, from your comments above.
What about it? That money is in the Treasury (as are all the fines and licensing fees the FCC brings in), but it hasn’t been allocated to the FCC or that specific program. Remember, a government agency can only spend the funds th Congress allocates to it.
This funding problem will go away in 2 months, at most. Remember, the converter coupons expire 2 months after they’re issued. Undoubtedly, there are a lot of people who got the coupons who won’t redeem them in that time frame, so at that point, the money from the expired coupons will go back in the budget and more can be issued.
And, btw, keep an eye out on Jan. 15, which is the date Hawaii goes digital. Seeing how that goes will let everyone know what problems still need to be fixed.
No we are not. The fucking television is in hotels rooms. Heavy petting television (cable) is like wise not affected. We are talking about mild T and A television.