Analog (Broadcast Television) Shutoff Shuffle Continues

[Wilms]

Analog Shutoff Shuffle Continues

The calamity begins...

1.12.2009

The end of analog broadcasting increasingly resembles a double-dare that no one quite takes. Once the subsidy program to keep TVs alive was tapped out last week, letters started flying across the nation’s capital to the effect that delaying the deadline was in order. Congress two years ago ordered that all analog broadcast TV transmissions would cease as of this Feb. 17. That was after all analog broadcast TV transmissions were supposed to cease Dec. 31, 2006, but the country really wasn’t ready back then. Now, it’s only sort of not ready.

The Consumers Union started the letter-writing campaign with notes to key members of Congress suggesting a delay. Those Congress members in turn started harrumphing about it to the point where the incoming Administration issued a likewise correspondence advocating a delay. After years of orchestration under mostly Republican control, the actual analog deadline falls just 28 days after President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

Obama transition co-chief, John Podesta, addressed his own missive to Sens. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.V.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas); and to Reps. Henry Waxman (D.- Calif.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), urging them to cut loose the money necessary to subsidize more digital-to-analog converter boxes. A total of $1.5 billion was set aside for the program in the deadline bill, but it fell on hard times last week. The portion spent on the $40 coupons good toward converter boxes ran out. And while millions of those coupons have either expired or are sitting in someone’s drawer somewhere, the agency in charge of the program can’t issue more until lawmakers waive the so-called “Anti-deficiency Act.”

The National Association of Broadcasters then got into the game, issuing a statement that TV stations are fine with the deadline, thank you very much, particularly since they’ll save several thousands dollars in power bills once analog transmitters are shut off. (“Thousands” from the perspective of broadcast stocks in the $2 range.) Then the Big Four networks reportedly said they’d be fine with a delay. Then a pair of former FCC chiefs, apparently forgetting that there is a current FCC chief, wrote an op-ed published in The New York Times supporting a delay, noting that even if people ordered $40 subsidy coupons now, they’d not arrive before Feb. 17.

http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/72694

[RB TexLa]

1. There will still be a lot of domestic violence among the ignorant the first night.

"Bitch! what ya done to tha TeeVee!"

[Generator]

26. The masses running screaming into the streets

That's the image I always have. Maybe we can finally get Bush prosecuted. Torches and pitchforks, a new reality teevee.

[Wilms]

27. That's a great image.

Makes sense. The TeeVee goes dark and a light bulb switches on. :think:

[RC]

2. I got my box. Let's get this execution over with.

.

[MADem]

4. Have you been able to test it out? Or will it be "Oh shit, I need a booster for the antennae" on

conversion day?

[smalll]

6. Exactamente. It's not just about converter boxes. From what I've read and heard,

Pulling free, broadcast TV out of the air is generally much more difficult when its digital rather than analog, for a number of reasons. If someone lives very close to the transmitters (ie, in big media-market cities) they'll be OK. Otherwise, you're in for some trouble.

[Mugu]

9. I don't know where this idea is coming from.

I live about 65 miles west of Chicago and have an old antenna on the roof that I hadn't used in probably 13 or 14 years because of a snowy picture (even with an amp.) After seeing the picture that a couple of my neighbors got with their converter boxes I went out and bought one. The picture from Chicago is perfect and I even get some Rockford stations off the side of the antenna (without using an amp.) Best $10 that I've spent in a long while.

[RC]

18. Rabbit ears and I get all the channels.

[scarletwoman]

3. I think the whole thing is a scam, anyway. The Feds sold off perfectly good public airwaves so that

corporations could increase their profits. The supposed freeing up extra bandwidth for emergency use hasn't come to pass -- last I read, very few bids have been received for the extra airwave space and the corps are chomping at the bit to gobble all of it up.

I'm going on memory here, so I could be wrong, but my overall impression from past research on this topic is that this whole thing is essentially unnecessary and just one more way for Big Corpo Media to screw the rest of us.

sw

[Skidmore]

5. Bingo! And shoved a new technology on the public

at a time when people can ill afford it. Besides, I just saw an item on the news on the weekend reporting that in England they are considering banning the plasma teevees because they use too much power.

[anigbrowl]

11. Ignorance abounds...

This has been discussed since 1985 and the switchover was approved by Congress in 1997. So it's been in the works for 12 years, or 24 if you count when they fist considered switching. People have been able to get coupons for their converter box for over a year. Anyone who just found out about it recently simply hasn't been paying attention.

Plasma or not in the TV has nothing whatsoever to with whether it can receive a digital signal. In any case, most people prefer LCD for a big scren because it's cheap both to buy and to use, and holds its quality better than the plasma.

[Wilms]

15. Not everyone has had their requests for a coupon honored.

And now, the fund to supply those coupons has run out.

[anigbrowl]

21. That's a separate issue, and an easily fixable one

I was talking about technical misconceptions.

[Wilms]

22. You did point out a possible misconception...one of many on the subject.

But you also posted, "People have been able to get coupons for their converter box for over a year".

That's why I responded as I did. Some people got the coupons requested. Some didn't. And yes, many didn't even ask for one.

[scarletwoman]

23. I applied for a coupon almost a year ago & never got one. I applied again & it took almost 3 months

for it to finally show up in the mail. But by the time it came, I was in the midst of a family crisis (my mother dying, then dead, of cancer and my dad going blind) and I missed the expiration date to redeem it.

I was going to try to apply again, but I probably won't bother. There's a few things I'll miss, but I lived for many years without TV during the 70s and 80s. I'll just get a radio. Anyway, I've got the internet, so fuck 'em.

sw

[Wilms]

24. I gave one away today. And the other one will probably go too.

I watched enough TV growing up.

[Lex]

7. It's being done all over the world. We are one of the last to make the transition.

nt

[scarletwoman]

12. Yeah, so is corporate globalisation. That doesn't mean it's a good thing. (nt)

[Lex]

19. I didn't assert it was a "good thing"

nt

[smalll]

8. And I think the final part of the scam will be that, once the change-over happens,

and people who don't live near the transmitters discover how very difficult it is to pull broadcast digital signals out the air for free, they'll finally give up and start PAYING for TV (through the cable companies mostly) the way most Americans do. I'm a TV deadbeat myself here -- don't pay a cent and just watch broadcast. The powers-that-be are just fed up with those of us who hate America like that, and aim to put a stop to it.

I predict that after the changeover happens, it will only be a matter of a few short years before just about every broadcast TV signal gets pulled entirely, or weakened to the point of general uselessness. The broadcasters will claim that its not economical to broadcast for free anymore -- they'll argue that so few people still watch free TV, plus, those that do tend to be poor people and/or tightwads (not exactly a desirable advertising demographic.)

[Mugu]

10. Spend the $10 for a converter and give it a try.

If you enjoy TV at all you'll never watch analog again once you try digital. I hadn't seen network television in over a decade (network access costs an extra $5 per month on satellite so I get cable channels only.) Less than 10 minutes of watching proved the digital concept for me.

[scarletwoman]

14. That's one of catches that I think I may run into. I'm out in the boonies, there's no guarantee

that I'll be able to pull in a digital signal. I sure as hell am not about climb up on my snow and ice covered roof in the middle of fucking winter in Minnesota to experiment with the direction of my antenna (I live alone) after I hook up the digital receiver box and find out that I can't get a signal anyway.

February! Doesn't anyone have a clue how ridiculous this is for people in the rural north?

sw

[backscatter712]

17. From what I've been told, the digital channels aren't broadcasting with as many watts as analog.

I also remember reading that they're likely to turn up the broadcast power on the digital transmissions once the analog broadcasts are turned off.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. This may be a silly question - are you getting extra channels with digital broadcast TV?

In the UK, you get 5 channels on analog broadcast; and dozens on digital broadcast TV (perhaps 20 'normal' channels, as opposed to shopping channels and other such filler). In the US, does the switch to digital give people some or all of the basic cable channels, without having to pay for them?

[backscatter712]

16. Yes, a few.

Some of the major broadcast TV stations opened up second and third channels with the bandwidth they got for digital broadcasts Typically, an old Channel 7 would have a 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 on digital.

[rcsl1998]

20. Can We Review The Reasons Given For Eliminating Analog Signals For TV

I'd like to know the REAL backstory on this...

[scarletwoman]

25. Yeah, me too. What little I've explored has led me to believe that this is basically just a way for

corporate media to get more control over the airways, and the end of the concept of community control and ownership of a limited resource. In other words, another triumph for privatization of the Commons, so someone in the private sector can make more profits.

sw