So long analog TV; it was great knowing you
Isn’t today the big big day for the transition to digital television? You can be forgiven for forgetting — in fact that’s just how the Obama administration wants it.
Ill-prepared back in February, when the U.S. was supposed to go all-digital all the time, the government decided to push back the switchover date by four months. Experts tell the Los Angeles Times that the delay should help avoid major problems, although about 2.8 million people could be left out in the cold when they try to turn on the tube.
The smart folks over at RPA, the advertising agency based in Los Angeles, put together of list of the markets that are best prepared — and those that aren’t. It cited data from The Nielsen Co, which has been studying preparations for the transition.
The best prepared areas, in order: Providence/New Bedford, Oklahoma City, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Ft. Myers/Naples and Hartford/New Haven. And the least prepared: Albuquerque/Santa Fe, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Sacramento, Seattle/Tacoma, Austin, and Los Angeles.
It could be a good weekend if you own an electronics store in Tacoma.
Keep an eye on:
- Yahoo has hired a new finance chief to help turn right the company — former Altera and General Electric executive Tim Morse (Reuters)
CES: Little appetite for delay of DTV deadline
A panel at the Consumer Electronics Show, discussing the Feb 17 deadline for a mandatory U.S. switch to a nationwide digital television system, were less than keen on President-Elect Barack Obama’s backing of a proposal for a delay. The idea of postponing was floated amid fears viewers were unprepared and funding problems for a government program to provide $40 coupons for consumers to buy digital-to-analog converters.
“Delaying the transition in my opinion, you’re just delaying the same problems,” said Emily Neilson, president and general manager of KLAS-TV a Las Vegas CBS affiliate who said that about 7 percent of consumers were still not ready for the change over. She said that while the transfer was not likely to go perfectly, the problems would eventually be ironed out. “I think most of the people waiting on the coupons don’t need the $40 and I’d like to give those to the people who truly need it,” she said.
Henry Hauser, a display product manager for television maker Panasonic said it did not make sense to delay and that the transition would only see isolated snafus. “We feel it would be better to just end the confusion. People are going to delay until they don’t have a picture and then they’ll go get it,” he said. “We feel very strongly it should go forward”
But Lynn Mento, senior vice president at AARP, said that the advocacy group for people over 50, effectively supports the delay as it could help them to get more convertor coupons to the people who need them.
“We have been working to try to communicate to our members that if they have coupons to please donate them … The added time would give us more time to get those messages out.”
But she said if there is a day, something should happen on Feb 17th that would remind people they need to make sure their televisions will be able to receive digital TV. “In terms of seasonality we support not having the change in the winter months,” said Mento, who worries about her members having to climb on their rooftops to change their antennas in order to transfer to digital.
This fiasco represents yet another defrauding of the American public by its government, which spent less than 10% of the funds generated by its auction of OUR analog RF spectrum to run this program – never mind the previously collected billions from the initial auction for the spectrum used by digital.
It seems also that the requirements to successfully implement digital in many locations has been grossly understated. Kind of an non-lethal version of the balderdash that got us into Iraq. This government just didn’t know when to stop lying.
I am a technologist who would love to see the transition – but not yet. To make the change in February would amount to ripping off millions of Americans and be a further reflection of class warfare. Gotta ask yourself, why should ANY AMERICAN have to shell out even a single DIME for this? I would not be surprised if making the switch in February led to violent protests in many locations as many people who recently lost cable service owing to the economics of recently lost jobs feel like they are being picked on – one of their few resources for information and entertainment being taken away from them.
You’d have to be morally bankrupt to think it ok to proceed while leaving many who have lost local radio programming owing to media consolidation even more defenseless in times of emergency.
Indeed the public should be up in arms and demanding to know how Congress and the Bush administration managed to forget how to do math and squander funds that should have been used for this. Just another example of those having trampling on those without.
How many old Tv’s will end up in a mad rush to the landfill as a result of this, too – considering that many will be unable to afford to convert all of their TV.s to digital for some time to come.
Hello… we are in a deep recession…
selfish pigs…
CES: TVs, TVs and… TV zombies
I stepped out of the Las Vegas Convention Center yesterday to recover from the brilliant glare of the gazillion TVs on display inside — only to run into another set of boxes on the sidewalk. Okay, they weren’t regular old TVs, but humans wearing black boxes over their heads.
Their heads emblazoned with the logos of TV companies, these “TV zombies” were out on the street taking a break from their first CES protest. Jeffrey Jacoby, one of the zombies, explained that they were members of the Electronics Takeback Coalition, which was demonstrating against the poor gadget recycling practices of consumer electronics manufacturers like LG, Toshiba, Sony and others.
“We’re calling on manufacturers of TVs at CES to take back old products and keep toxic e-waste from coming to haunt us,” said Jacoby, who was dressed in rags and had on white face paint. The Dallas resident works for an environmental non-profit group and came to Vegas along with nearly 40 other people, just to protest.
Earlier in the day, the group organized a press conference and an official 25-zombie demonstration. (You can watch the TV zombies in action in this “Revenge of the Return of the Undead Toxic Televisions” video here.) They’re campaigning for a national recycling program from TV manufacturers ahead of the Feb 17, 2009 digital TV transition, when “millions of (analog) TVs will become obsolete,” according to the website.
Maybe it’ll be a less uphill task this year to convince CES exhibitors that taking back old TVs isn’t such a bad thing, given how much they’re touting their new energy-saving TVs, recyclable packaging and general all-round environmental friendliness.
This is a huge environmental problem and will surely increase with the new TV’s on the horizon. So glad that someone is addressing the issue and is having success in convincing the manufacturers to take responsibility.
Obama greenlights analog TV for another season
After all the excitement, endless public service announcement ads and electronics retailers salivating over anticipated high-definition TV sales, it turns out that the United States might not be switching to digital television just yet.
President-elect Barack Obama is backing a move to delay a mandatory switch to digital TV signals on Feb. 17 because viewers might not be prepared. Also, the government has run out of $40 coupons to help pay for converter boxes.
The idea that as many as 8 million homes (according to Nielsen data) might lose TV reception in a few weeks is not the kind of headache a new White House administration wants to deal with so it’s perhaps not surprising talk of a delay, possibly up to four months, is gathering support.
Traditional over-the-air broadcasters, who already have a shrinking viewer base, will probably appreciate the breathing room, says Wall Street analyst Thomas Eagan of Collins Stewart. But Eagan thinks that cable TV companies will be less pleased if the digital transition is delayed.
A delay of this length would be a slight negative for the cable operators as they stand to benefit from over-the-air viewers becoming cable subscribers with the transition. [This is because the digital transition would not affect cable subscribers, who would still be able to watch TV on their old sets. -- ed.]
Since we expect Comcast to be the biggest beneficiary of the transition (due to the high percentage of over-the-air viewers not having registered for a coupon in Comcast’s franchise areas), a delay could translate to a higher ratio of new subscribers foregone for Comcast.
It’s not all bad news for Comcast, Time Warner Cable and friends, watch out for more ads for cheaper entry level cable packages says Eagan:
Perhaps the whole country shouldn’t do it all at once. I can understand people not wanting to have to get on their rooftops in the middle of winter in New Enland to install a better antenna, but 4 months from February is June. Here in Texas it’s rather hot in June. Why not phase in digital TV by region?
There does not seem to be any shortage of the converters in stores. There are shelves of them at my local Best Buy and Circuit City. The main problem seems to be getting the $40 coupons. Congress should just authorize some more funding. Considering the $20 billion the federal treasury is getting from auctioning off the spectrum currently used by VHF TV stations, another several hundred million dollars for more coupons doesn’t seem unreasonable.
Digital TV transition tour to hit NASCAR circuit
Federal regulators and U.S. lawmakers are trying every trick in the book from Web sites to road shows to make sure Americans know that the digital television transition is coming soon — which could mean those without cable or satellite would only see black unless they buy a new television set or get a converter box.
On Thursday the Federal Communications Commission decided to take their efforts one step further — to NASCAR. The agency plans to sponsor driver David Gilliland (car #38) for three races of the widely popular spectator sport.
“I believe this sponsorship is an extremely effective way for the FCC to raise DTV awareness among people of all ages and income levels across the United States who loyally follow one of the most popular sports in America,” said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
Another FCC commissioner, Robert McDowell, earlier this week warned that the transition will be messy and pressed broadcasters to step up their campaign to educate the public about the Feb. 17, 2009 switch to the higher quality signals.
Some 15 percent of U.S. households use only analog sets so they would have to buy a converter box or a new set. The Government Accountability Office has warned that regulators are unprepared for an expected surge in consumer demand for help when the transition arrives.
The government has offered $40 coupons to help consumers buy converter boxes but the GAO has said there is no plan to deal with the last-minute spike in demand for them.
(Photos: Reuters)
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