Here, you can add this as the first thing I disagree with the Obama administration on. We have had this deadline for years now. The amount of people who are going to be affected is miniscule – most of the country is on cable or satellite. Of those affected, they go and get the box and the tv machine works again. Let’s quit wasting time with analog and just do it.
Of those affected, they’re disproportionately elderly. Of those affected, they’re disproportionately likely to get all their news about the larger world from the TV. Of those, affected, they’re disproportionately likely to be minorities who haven’t been able to take advantage of the government’s (so far horribly slipshod) efforts to offer a subsidy to those who might buy the converter.
Aw, who am I kidding. I was just excited to be a contrarian about your first recorded disagreement with the Obama administration.
We’re changing over in a very few months. We’re ahead of America!
Of those affected, they’re disproportionately the types who don’t watch much TV.
Folks have known this is coming for 10 years now and they’re still bitching there hasn’t been enough warning?!? If you haven’t switched over yet, it’s your own d*mn fault.
@Sifu Tweety – You are dead on. It’s mostly seniors who don’t have the boxes. True there are also those that waited until the last minute to get a box, then ended up losing their job in this great Bush economy and that $40 for a converter box would mean missing quiet a few meals too (or they had to drop cable because they can’t afford it anymore).
True this new date is the mandatory date. Stations are allowed to switch over now. Hawaii did a couple of weeks ago, so they are procrastinating as much as everyone else – something the government actually started by moving the goal posts on this.
Yes, I agree about those stupid old people farris. Why don’t they spend $60 per Tv on converter boxes rather than buy groceries? It’s all about their choices!
I have to agree with Sifu and Enlightened Liberal. Also, my personal experience is that the converter box doesn’t work. I don’t have cable or internet because I can’t afford it – and I make more than double minimum wage so I’m sure there are lots of people out there who aren’t “on cable and satellite” as Oliver said. I live in a mountainous area where there are lots of dead zones for any type of signal – DTV, cell phone, whatever. With an analogue signal, we at least get all of the major network stations, perhaps slightly imperfectly but we get them. With the digital box, though, the signal has to be perfect for it to come in. So, we got our stupid coupon, bought the box and we’ll still be unable to watch anything but CW and, on good days, ABC. I have internet access at work but what about people who don’t. I’ve been reading this blog for a year now and I always appreciate your honesty Oliver. This is the first time I’ve found your comments both insensitive and narrow-minded. I would really like to hear what you have to say about the issues that have been raised here in the comments.
EL, if your grandma had started at the beginning of last year buying one less can of Pringles every week, she’d have saved up enough by now. That’s why the date was set in stone so long ago, so that even the stingiest of budgets would have enough time to scrape together such a MASSIVE amount of cash.
If it takes you more than 4 years to scrape together such a piddling amount, then I suggest you need to enroll in a money management course.
Who’s it hurting to continue the analog signal?
A lot of people ordered their coupons last year before the deadline, and the money ran out to cover them.
Who’s it hurting to continue the analog signal?
Cable companies.
Who’s it hurting to continue the analog signal?
PBS, for one. It will now cost public stations over $20 million to lease analog broadcast signals for another six months.
That’s interesting that the digital signal doesn’t transmit as well as the analogue. That may be a good reason to reconsider the DTV transition, but I don’t see how a delay of four months would address that problem.
I don’t think Oliver is being insensitive for thinking people have had plenty of time to scrape together such a small amount of money. Even people in poor neighborhoods have cell phones, iPods, and tons of other things that cost at least as much. The transition has been very well-publicized, and people have had ample opportunity to get a box for free. In the worst case scenario, people would be forced to go without TV for a while. Horrors! They could still get their news from a radio. Its unsurprising that the government wants to make sure no one is deprived of the idiot box for even a moment. We can all go back to sleep now.
Who’s it hurting to continue the analog signal?
You the taxpayer. The sooner the FCC can auction off signal rights, the sooner it can start generating income into the Treasury.
First of all, it’s TV. Not heat, air, water, electricity. TV. And again I say the vaaaast majority of people get TV via cable or satellite, even those on minimum wage or in the low income bracket. The analog spectrum is set to be auctioned, bringing in money we need to the federal gov’t.
Thanks everyone for your responses to my question.
I was too lazy to research it myself.
I don’t have a DTV converter. Nor do I have cable or dish and would NEVER, EVER get them.
The ‘coupons’ expired before the envelope they came in was even opened and apparently once a household ‘received’ it’s coupons it doesn’t get more even if the coupons received expired.
The notion of spending even $50 to buy DTV converter is offensive and not where $50 bucks of mine is going to go anytime soon (it doesn’t make the long list, let alone the short list).
So… ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, and yes, even FOX will be losing my consumer eyeballs for quite some time when analog TV ends. Perhaps sometime in early 2010 I _might_ look at a late Christmas present of a DTV converter or computer card _if_ they’re really cheap or a good used one pops up.
As it is, it’s just as likely I’ll get used to life without TV.
ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, and FOX may not realize how much of TV watching was just channel surfers that got stuck on a show somewhere.
I’ve been watching too many dumb shows quite regularly entirely because I got stuck somewhere while surfing. “Heroes,” & “My Own Worst Enemy” (NBC), “Smallville,” & “Supernatural” (CW), “Sarah Connor Terminator Chronicles” (FOX).
I’d expected to have those five (FIVE!) hours a week back sometime in February (significantly more if you count the reruns of “Star Trek” and “King of the Hill” on FOX that irregularly get watched).
As it is, pushing back the DTV date is a reprieve for NBC’s, CW’s, and FOX’s sponsors. (And, no, none of those shows have been interesting enough to watch online.)
The only thing I’ll really miss is the PBS NewsHour and all of the Sunday morning talk/pundit shows which I watch obsessively.
On some level it would be nice to see David Gregory, George Stephanopoulos, Bob Schieffer, and the Fox gasbags all be diminished because the shiny new digital age eliminated a lot of the older folk that are the mainstay demographic of those shows.
And here’s a thought: each week those hosts seem more like corporatist tools than they did the week before. Wouldn’t it be funny if the digital age significantly diminished the power and reach of those coporate tool’s ability to regularly misinform elderly people and poor news junkies?
David Gregory is still Karl Rove’s dance partner. Bob Schieffer’s sycophantic interview with Republican Presidential Candidate McCain shortly after he’d picked Palin was a real eye opening and incredibly disappointing experience. And Fox makes me question whether I’m a masochist (I’m not, so if the first few minutes offend me enough it usually gets turned off).
There would only be one thing that would be worth getting a DTV tuner for. If Stephanopoulos started having Krugman on as a permanent panel member I might reconsider getting a DTV card. Seriously.
Krugman’s few interchanges have been exceptionally informative and occasionally amusing as the right wing trolls dujour tries to spout magic numbers to a nobel economist. Watching Krugman school right wing enron economic fictions every week would be worth buying even a $100 DTV card. I’m absolutely serious.
Somewhere there’s a quip about Krugman single-handedly spurring American economic activity. At least for the ability of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and WB’s _sponsors_ to secure another set of eyeballs, after all, are any DTV computer cards or even the DTV converters MADE in America?
Or did Carly Fiorina, Mitt Romney and their ilk sell out that corner of America’s manufacturing base as well?
In the worst case scenario, people would be forced to go without TV for a while. Horrors!
If it diminishes American Idle and reality TV, it can’t be a bad thing.
Perhaps it will increase literacy.
Did you know at one point people paid over $50 because the insensitive pricks at the TV networks started broadcasting in color when mostly everyone had a black and white TV???? Technology marches forward, folks.
Most of that programming can be viewed on the web, anyway.
Doing without teevee is not difficult. We have done it for 17 years. Computer,radio and books do nicely. We have a receiver, but we don’t watch it. We won’t get a DTV converter or any of that other stuff either.
The sooner the FCC can auction off signal rights, the sooner it can start generating income into the Treasury.
Already done. The spectrum now occupied by analog TV has already been auctioned. Companies are waiting to use it for mobile broadband.
Perhaps it will increase literacy.
Horror of horrors, people will be forced to speak to each other. Or, more likely, silently read celebrity magazines.
Dunno about you but I make lots of noises when I read celebrity magazines.
Oliver says: “Did you know at one point people paid over $50 because the insensitive pricks at the TV networks started broadcasting in color when mostly everyone had a black and white TV????”
Um, the difference is that the insensitive jerks DIDN’T TAKE AWAY THE ABILITY TO SEE THE TV IN BLACK AND WHITE. Old black and white sets still worked (are working) perfectly fine and no idiotic punk was saying, ‘well it’ll work again only after you’ve paid for the new upgrade.’
Sure, Oliver, you’ve got the discretionary cash to play, but your showing a different side to yourself with the indifference to those that aren’t wearing your shoes.
For instance, I hear the neighbor grouse that Digital reception is WORSE than Analog. “No way,” I say. So I sit in front of their newly paid DTV converter (which they scrimped to buy) and start surfing. Sure enough, while the analog comes in fuzzy, it still comes IN but Two digital channels (WB and ION) won’t come in at all and all the rest have glitches far worse than watching fuzzy analog.
Those digital reception claims of being superior? Wow, what a load of marketing bull. The analog pictures might be fuzzy, but you can watch a full hour and HEAR every word. The digital picture is like somebody had taken scissors and chopped up the entire reel of film and dropped random bits on the floor.
There’s a lot of neighbors that can’t afford their HOUSE, Oliver. Telling them that those old TV’s of theirs are now worthless without paying $50 for a converter (and another $?? for a rooftop antennae) because you want your 1900×1088 resolution is, well, probably something you should keep to yourself unless you plan on starting to write for RedState.
But hey, if the neighbor loses their HOUSE (and many in this neighborhood already have), maybe I can pick up a cheap DTV converter AND a cheap analog tv or two. Or does that make me an insensitive jerk?
/snark
Dunno about you but I make lots of noises when I read celebrity magazines.
Dude, that’s gross.
Well you can relax Ollie because the House Republicans Defeated the Measure.
WTF? 258-168 Why 2/3rds needed to win in the house?
It seems awful hard to get anything done even if you have a majority in both houses and the Presidency.