So, the Congress, the Senate and the new administration have all agreed to postpone the digital TV switch. Their main reason: 6.5 million people aren’t ready according to the television ratings gurus Nielson, even though they’ve had about two years of constant bombardment reminding.
If they didn’t switch it prior to February, they will probably wob’t until after their televisions no longer work. There are some people out there who just don’t act, they react. Come June, I bet there will still be six million people who are not ready. Do we postpone it again? At some point we have to just say enough is enough. Television is not a life sustaining piece of technology. If it gets shut-off, these people will not die, or suffer irreparable damage.
Now, I am an avid television watcher and I have cable, so the switch was never an issue for me. I do know people who were set to be affected by the switch and they acted accordingly. They applied for the federal money, they purchased their box and they made the switch. They now enjoy many new channels that they otherwise would not have been able to enjoy if it had not been for digital TV. I am also aware that some people did try to switch but ran into problems, probably along the lines of not getting the government subsidy or not being able to install the box. That’s understandable and for those I hope this extra time helps.
Something else to keep in mind is that companies spent $19.6 billion to buy the soon-to-be vacated airwaves. $19.6 billion! That’s a large amount of money. Now we are telling them that they cannot use what they bought for another 4 months. What if you bought a car and then someone said that you couldn’t drive it for another four months?
In the end, I believe we should have made the tough decision to shut down analog TV. Actually, it probably wouldn’t have been a hard decision. In fact the decision was already made years ago. Congress could have done nothing and the switch would have happened.
That was the easiest decision, to do nothing. Now we have to change our campaigns and advertisements to inform people that the much talked about date in February is now the much talked about date in June. I think a few people are going to be confused.
I’m going to go ahead and make a prediction, about five million people will still be ill-prepared for the switch come June unless government decides to spend lots more money to switch people over.
For most of them, it’s their choice. For those who are trying to switch, you can go to DTVanswers.com or you can call 1-888-CALL-FCC for more help.
You can also visit the Village Offices and pick up some FCC publications that can help explain what is going on and some troubleshooting tips for your converter box.
Now remember, June 12, 2009.