In case you’ve been living on the Moon and haven’t heard, President-elect Obama wants to delay the date (currently set at February 17) when full-power analog TV broadcasts will cease for ever and ever. The Consumer Union, among others, agrees.
Who strongly disagrees? Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who are currently talking about the future of media and content technology at CES. Shapiro went so far as to mock the president-elect by asking if that was “change you could believe in.” Martin, in more politic language, basically said no–they should hold fast on the date because moving it could: (1) confuse consumers, (2) mess with broadcasters that already have plans to shift their hardware around February, (3) mess with companies that are ready to start their build-out of the vacated spectrum, and (4) erode the government’s credibility as a sensible actor. Martin had a funny story about that last point from the test program in which broadcasters in Wilmington, North Carolina, stopped analog transmissions last September to see how the transition might run when it went nationwide.
He said that most residents had no problem, but 2-3 percent of people raised hell that their TVs had suddenly been bricked. The FCC asked these folks if they knew about the upcoming date, and they largely did. So why didn’t they get prepared by buying converter boxes? “‘We didn’t think you’d do anything,’” says Martin.
Other revelations from Martin’s fast-talkin’ session: He thinks cable TV service (where price is going up faster than inflation) is the medium that is lagging in innovation and serving the customer; the government has an obligation to protect kids from ads for unhealthy food; broadband doesn’t need any obscenity regulation because you “choose to pull down” Internet content, as opposed to TV content that’s “pushed out to you.”
January 10th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
It’s been postponed long enough. Shut down the analog signals on the 17th. Many public safety agencies need channel 69 off the air so that they can complete rebanding without TV station interference. A few people unable to watch their daytime soaps until they get the coupon situation straightened out is not that important.
January 10th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Gee, the CEO of a corporation waiting to make gazillions of dollars off digital tv sales mocking a President who wants to wait until enough converter boxes are available. What a surprise.
It seems pretty prudent to we Americans with brains that in the midst of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression that changing over our television broadcast technology while so many are losing their incomes and homes might be ill advised.
Further, I have read that there is a shortage of converter boxes (intentional?) and they are back ordered. If we change over without enough converter boxes, many Americans will have zero access to television. In a time of national crises, moving forward now would be foolish. No, stupid.
We’ve been through 8 years of stupid, and look where it got us.
The last person I would quote as an authority is the overpaid CEO of the industry that wants to force people to buy new, expensive digital televisions at a time when our nation is imploding economically.
January 10th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Cry me a river.
These luddites have had plenty of time to do something about their televisions. If they’re completely cut off, they can get cable.
February 16th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
TV is not a necessity. Nobama wasted tax payer time and money doing this. I’m just waiting for the tax hikes to pay for all his passing our money around.
If you call protecting your country stupid what do you call sending our money to other countries so women can have elective medical proceedures?