Don't Delay the DTV Transition!

[Free4Life11]

Also, The Emergancy Broadcast system failed miserably. The one and only time the System was suppose to be activated since it's inception, was on 9/11/01. Not one msg was ever Broadcasted by the EBS. So all those "TEST" beeping on your screen & interupting your viewing all these years were all for nothing.

Really? When I lived in Nebraska they used it for weather events; they had one once for a severe thunderstorm and another for a tornado. I actually would have preferred they NOT use it and let us watch the regular news stations as they gave you more info than a black screen with a scratchy voice talking...

 

[mkingdomlvr]

Why don't you do some research to see if your county DID purchase it?

Or let's put it this way. Verizon, I believe, paid $4 billion for their portion of the airwaves...so technically Verizon paid for the coupons and then some!

Just please don't tell me you are a Verizon customer....LOL.

Yep, we have verizon cell phones.

 

[bicker]

Incidentally, the DTV transition is today, for the state of Hawai'i, so at least for one state, it is too late for Congress to delay the transition.

 

[Laurabearz]

Happy to see people have something to gripe about. It's cold outside, so all this bickering warms the heart.

 

[Charade]

Happy to see people have something to gripe about. It's cold outside, so all this bickering warms the heart.

*snicker*

 

[bicker]

Happy to see people have something to gripe about.

People always have something to gripe about. I wouldn't say griping about how they didn't get their coupons because they waiting too long warms my heart, but it sure warms something.

 

[bicker]

Amazing that the media, after helping create a firestorm for the delay, by presenting only one side of the argument (for the delay) for weeks, "suddenly has learned" that there are very good reason not to delay the digital television transition:

Analog TV shutdown delay poses problems

Viewer confusion, additional broadcaster costs among some of the issues

... But one big problem with extending the transition, critics warn, is that many TV viewers could be confused. A delay could also be expensive for broadcasters. And it could burden public safety agencies and wireless companies waiting for the airwaves that will be freed by the shutdown of analog signals.
... The message all along has been that analog signals would be shut off on Feb. 17. This aggressive campaign has pushed consumer awareness rates well above 90 percent, according to Megan Pollock, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association. "We have been working for almost three years to educate consumers that this is the day," Pollock said. "How do we re-create that?... It will be hard to start over." It will also be costly — forcing the government and industry to pour more resources into additional public service announcements and outreach efforts.

For many television stations, a delay would also mean the additional expense of continuing to broadcast both an analog and a digital signal for another four months. According to Randy Smith, president of WSET, the ABC affiliate in Lynchburg, Va., the electricity bill alone to operate some transmitters can run $20,000 a month.

A delay would also upend carefully mapped transition plans that many stations have had in place for months, if not longer.

... Emergency responders affected

TV stations are not the only ones concerned about a delay. The whole reason Congress is requiring broadcasters to go to digital signals is to free up valuable chunks of wireless spectrum for emergency-response networks and commercial wireless services. ... I

... Wireless industry issues
... But Qualcomm is lobbying against a delay. ... And it paid more than $550 million for spectrum being vacated by the digital transition to be able to expand the service in 25 markets, including Boston, Houston, Miami and San Francisco, beginning on Feb. 18. According to Qualcomm Chief Operating Office Len Lauer, a delay would cost the company tens of millions of dollars — in additional payments to broadcasters to vacate their analog spectrum for another four months and in lost revenue from new markets.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28818654/

 

[bicker]

I don't remember where this discussion was, but I remember someone speculating that after the coupons were no longer valid, that converter box prices would drop to about $10 (i.e., what most folks are currently paying for the boxes, after applying their coupons). That is almost surely not the case, and I learned today one reason why: The folks holding the patent get a $6 royalty on every single converter box.

 

[Carl]

Well, they did it. I had predicted that they would. Anytime Congress (or any group, for that matter) says that they will keep bringing something up until it passes - it will. The opponents seldom have the patience to keep voting it down.

 

[mickeymedic]

It appears that democrats and republicans agree that this delay is a ridiculous waste of time and money. So, why did our elected officials feel compelled to make this a top priority while so many other challenges face our country? Who benefits from the delay?

 

[Cool-Beans]

I don't want it delayed.

It is monumentally boring and I'm tired of hearing people talk about it.

 

[bicker]

Actually, the main result of all this is confusion, not even delay, because channels can make the transition to digital anyway, without waiting until June. Hundreds of channels have already provided notice that they will be doing so. So instead of everyone being ready for channels to switch to digital on a specific day, Congress has given us a gift the end result of which is that you never know, when you turn on your television, whether the analog channel you're looking for will be there or not.

 

[Charade]

Actually, the main result of all this is confusion, not even delay, because channels can make the transition to digital anyway, without waiting until June. Hundreds of channels have already provided notice that they will be doing so. So instead of everyone being ready for channels to switch to digital on a specific day, Congress has given us a gift the end result of which is that you never know, when you turn on your television, whether the analog channel you're looking for will be there or not.

Excellent!

 

[bicker]

The FCC has released the expedited rules for channels that still wish to transition on February 17 (or any time earlier than June 12).

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-6A1.doc

 

[bicker]

No big surprise... all the Chicken Little ranting about the digital transition was unjustified:

According to Jonathan Collegio, NAB's VP for the DTV switch and point person for DTV education, there were relatively few viewer calls in markets in Virginia, Illinois and Kansas that had made the switch early enough for the association to get a read on them.

In two Virginia markets, for example, there had only been 150 calls by the time the NAB put out an e-mail at 9:45 Tuesday night. Stations in Rockford, Ill., had received 200 calls, while Topeka stations had received about 300 calls.

NAB said stations were able to resolve most of the problems over the phone. "We are pleased that thus far call volume appears relatively low in markets where stations switched earlier in the day," said Collegio in a statement. "Awareness of the transition is saturated in every market nationwide as a result of the broadcast industry's $1.2 billion consumer education campaign," he said, a campaign for which he was the point person at the NAB.