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Re: Many TV viewers unprepared for digital switch (come up to Canada where it's 2011!)

Thats their tuff damn luck. They were well warned. Snooze and lose!
"Taylor" <lukebenward@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:57b20e8b-6d56-4a73-94a9-3087f03169a4@k13g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> Many TV Viewers Unprepared For Switch
>
> By Kim Hart
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Wednesday, June 11, 2008; Page D01
>
> Nearly half of the households that could lose television service after
> the transition to digital broadcasting are still unprepared for the
> switch, according to a report released yesterday by the Government
> Accountability Office.
>
> The report found that many consumers are still confused about how to
> get ready for the transition, underscoring lawmakers' concerns that
> millions of TV viewers could be faced with a blank screen.
>
> Broadcasters will stop airing traditional analog signals on Feb. 17 as
> they switch entirely to digital broadcasting, so TVs that rely on old-
> fashioned analog signals to get service will no longer work.
> Nationwide, about 70 million TVs rely on antennas to receive over-the-
> air signals. To keep watching television after the transition,
> consumers using analog TVs will need to buy converter boxes, buy a
> digital TV or subscribe to cable or satellite service.
>
> "No matter what we do and no matter how many tax dollars we spend,
> we're not going to be at a point where there aren't any effects," for
> consumers, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) said at a hearing yesterday held
> by the House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet.
>
> The GAO report found that about 84 percent of consumers were aware of
> the transition but that many did not know what they needed to do to
> continue getting service. More than half the 1,010 people surveyed
> said they knew about the government program to get coupons to help pay
> for converter boxes that allow analog TVs to receive digital
> broadcasts, but two-thirds of the people who want a coupon didn't know
> how to get one.
>
> Even consumers who will not be affected are confused, the report
> found. About 30 percent of the respondents indicated they had plans to
> ready themselves for the transition, even though they do not have to
> do anything to maintain service.
>
> Many members of the panel expressed concern that converter box coupons
> may expire before consumers can find a box they can afford or that has
> the features they want. The $40 coupons are available through a $1.5
> billion program run by the National Telecommunications and Information
> Administration, an agency within the Commerce Department. But the
> coupons expire after 90 days, and consumers are currently not eligible
> to reapply.
>
>
> For example, the GAO report found that only a few converter boxes
> currently available will allow TVs to continue receiving analog
> signals from low-powered stations, which typically air local
> broadcasts and are not required to make the transition to digital.
>
> About 800,000 coupons -- the first batch to be sent to TV viewers --
> recently expired. Fewer than half were redeemed, according to the
> NTIA. The agency said it would decide whether to reissue the coupons
> after more detailed redemption rates were available next month.
>
> "It's important for consumers to buy the boxes now rather than wait
> until the rush next January and February," said Bernadette McGuire-
> Rivera, associate administrator of the Office of Telecommunications
> and Information Applications in the NTIA. She added that more funds
> may be needed to reissue coupons that have already expired.
>
> Lawmakers questioned Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal
> Communications Commission, about the quality of reception consumers
> would receive after the transition. Unlike analog signals, digital
> signals are not as resilient to interference from trees and buildings,
> which sometimes causes the picture to disappear entirely.
>
> FCC engineers said about 15 percent of viewers live along the edge of
> a broadcaster's coverage area, and about 5 percent of those, or 1
> percent of current analog households, may have reception issues,
> Martin said. Martin also said digital reception would improve as
> broadcasters reposition their antennas to complete the transition.
>
> The FCC last month announced that five Wilmington, N.C., stations
> would make the transition early in September to identify any problems
> before other markets make the official switch. FCC and NTIA officials
> plan to be in Wilmington to assist.
>
> Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and
> Commerce Committee, said he was worried that all the personal
> attention given to that market would make it an unrealistic test
> case.
>
> "Will the FCC have the resources to educate every community to the
> same extent as was done in the Wilmington test market?" he said. "I
> must confess I have great doubts about that."
>
>
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/06/10/PH2008061003142.html
> Rep. John Shimkus is concerned about the transition's effect on owners
> of analog TVs. (Seth Perlman - AP)
>


** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

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