For Sondie Reiff and Don Glickman and many more who love pop music, and pop culture, next February will mark the 50th anniversary of “The day the music died"….when a tragic airplane crash killed a number of top pop singers. For Sondie and Don, next February 17th, may be the day that TV dies.
On that day the recently retired, but very active couple, may not have access to their precious PBS specials, sports events, soap operas and Jeopardy. Tough to imagine considering they have a nice new 40-inch HDTV in their mobile home and their 15-year old, but still clear as ever, 27-inch Panasonic TV in their condo that they keep to be near their grandchildren in New England. These folks don’t want cable or satellite TV (because they travel so much), but they still want their basic TV in the condo as well as their mobile home.
That’s the day, the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005 finally comes into effect mandating that most TV broadcasts must be in a digital format. In the meantime, all U.S. households are eligible to request up to two coupons, worth $40 each, to be used toward the purchase of up to two, digital-to-analog converter boxes which will enable all TVs to receive the digital signals….supposedly a simple solution for the millions of households without cable or satellite.
“There are more than 35 million people who still use terrestrial (over the air signals) to receive TV signals. They’re the ones who will be affected by the transition,” says a senior research editor at Consumer’s Union, the parent company of Consumer Reports. “But I’m not sure the government anticipated all the issues involved in such a massive undertaking.”
In addition, many other people who use their non-cable, non-satellite TVs in other rooms in the house or in their mobile or second homes will surely want to participate as soon as they hear and see the post Labor Day media blitz. Here are some of the latest issues facing the largest technology initiative ever undertaken by the federal government for consumers in decades.
According to several industry experts, some transactions go smoothly; many more are having problems: boxes that aren’t delivered as promised and/or boxes that are delivered but don’t work. “This transition has not been as smooth as trade associations and government officials claim,” says Len Wanger, senior technology analyst for William Harris & Co., the Chicago based investment firm. (Read - “CEA Says DTV Transition Looks Healthy”)
“People are still confused of which box to buy and whether or not they’ll have the right equipment for next February. And some network and local over-the-air broadcasters are jumping the gun and cutting off analog broadcasts early, so folks in those areas without cable boxes or satellite have already lost some of their TV signals,” adds Wanger.
Several local Radio Shack managers admitted that they either run out of boxes or when they do have some in stock, there’s confusion of which box to pick. “We are at the mercy of the manufacturers, so sometimes we’ll have a few older and newer boxes sitting right next to each other and it is hard to tell the consumer what to pick,” says a manager who works in several New England Radio Shacks. “Plus they ask why they have to shell out more than the coupons calls for so the process is not that simple.”
Not simple and quite confusing for people, retailers, and manufacturers that Electronic House interviewed.
The CEA reports that of the nearly 110 million American homes with at least one TV set, 68 percent receive a cable signal and 22 percent receive a DBS signal. The research shows that roughly three percent receive both cable and DBS. In total, 87 percent of American homes have access to cable or satellite (and thus network and local feeds).
This means that if analog broadcasting was turned off today, less than 13 percent of 110 million TV households would not have access to a broadcast signal through cable or satellite, (though they could start subscribing).
by Frank Beacham, 6.22.2005
Frank Beacham is a New York City-based writer and producer. Visit his Web site at www.frankbeacham.com.
I’ve only ever read 13 million people current still use Off-air tv service not the vastly increased number given in this article. And i fail to see how the couple mentioned at the start of this article are going to lose their TV service given you mentioned they have a new digital tv. Its only the analog TV that will require 1 box and then theres no more issue. Pretty simple. I think it shows more about the lack of education and willingness to learn by the general public. The need to spoon feed adults information just shows the state of this country
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I have two of these boxes. One that I bought from Radio Shack for 60 and another I bought at Walmart for 50 bucks. I used the coupons so it was roughly 30 bucks out of pocket. Seriously DTV was not a good idea for the masses. I don’t have cable or satellite by choice because I would never use it. I think it’s cool that the picture and sound are worlds apart from analog but it’s not for the technically challenged. I mean I can program the remote and use all the features the box has to offer but many won’t be able to use them, set it up, much less hook it up. The cable/satellite companies send a guy out to hook everything up for you and instruct you how to work the box. DTV doesn’t do that. I think the whole converting to digital thing was very poorly executed. They needed a much more user friendly way to implement this into the general public. For me it was a very cheap way to get what I wanted and I think it’s great.