Congress Concerned About Blame For Digital TV
In February of 2009, the nation will be forcibly switched to a digital television format. The reasons given are many, from needing bandwidth for national emergency usage to simple bandwidth needs of all services.
Recently, the Congress has worried that the public will be angered by the switch, as many are not ready to make the switch, or, for that matter, aware of the upcoming changes mandated.
It does seem a bit late in the game for Congress to suddenly be showing remorse, or regret that it went along with the current administration’s selling of the airwaves to the highest bidders. It is simply another move in the Bush administration to sell off any public holdings to the corporate customer.
For those who welcome digital television, and look forward to the digital content made available by the change, there are three to five times as many who are not ready to switch, or aware of the move. It has been very poorly orchestrated.
Those who know about the change tend to believe that the 1.5 billion dollars set aside by Congress for public education will be enough. The only visible effect of the campaign thus far seems to be that new televisions that are not carrying digital tuning capability are being marked with a note to the effect that the sets will be rendered useless after the upcoming cutoff, unless additional add-on boxes are used. This is not as useful as one might think, as many consumers will be still using televisions that are otherwise fine, and have occasion to see the signs.
Some in Congress are of the belief that people not ready to switch will flock to the cable and DBS providers, who won’t be affected by the mandated switch, thereby averting some of the wrath others fear.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:50 am
Really? Forcibly switched?
Sounds like a lot of trouble in the future for those, who prefer it “the old way”
March 30th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
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