US Senate passes bill to delay digital TV switch

On Jan 28, 5:33*pm, Lars Eighner wrote:
In our last episode,
, the
lovely and talented Too_Many_Tools broadcast on alt.video.digital-tv:

On Jan 28, 10:23*pm, "D. Stussy" wrote:
At least some portion of Congress used some common sense and killed the
analog TV termination extension bill.

February 17, 2009 shall remain the deadline.

Aside: *I was in a local electronics store the other day (for reasons other
than TV equipment) and noted that the particular chain store I was in moved
all their in-stock TV converters to the front aisle by the entrance - just
for those procrastinators.
For now...LOL
So what are you going to do about the 6.5 million homes (with 4.5
consumers per house) = 30 millions consumers who advertisers will not
have access to.

They wouldn't get the boxes when the boxes were free. *What are the
odds they will buy advertised stuff that costs money?

Fortunately, many broadcasters will convert on schedule no matter what.
Delaying the conversion would be likely to affect more viewers because
stations cannot move to their new digital channels until analog channels get
out of the way. *

Why should viewers who got with the program lose stations because of
the few who couldn't be bothered to go pick up a free box?

--
* * * * Lars Eighner http://larseighner.com/
* * * * * * 8 days since Rick Warren prayed over Bush's third term.
* *Obama: No hope, no change, more of the same. Yes, he can, but no, he won't.

Free?

Convenient how you forgot to mention that the REPUBLICAN coupon
program ran out of money and has a waiting list of millions.

Typical winger avoiding responsibility for his actions.

LOL...yeah losing access to 30 million consumers might just make a
difference to the advertisers that broadcasters depend on.

The bright side without all those commercials, people will save more
money, buy less junk and have time to call their Congressmen to
complain.

I wonder how the REPUBLICANS will respond when it is on record that
they voted against the interests of their voters.

I know how the voters will respond the next election.

TMT

On Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:50:08 -0800 (PST), Too_Many_Tools
wrote:

On Jan 28, 5:33*pm, Lars Eighner wrote:
In our last episode,
, the
lovely and talented Too_Many_Tools broadcast on alt.video.digital-tv:

On Jan 28, 10:23*pm, "D. Stussy" wrote:
At least some portion of Congress used some common sense and killed the
analog TV termination extension bill.

February 17, 2009 shall remain the deadline.

Aside: *I was in a local electronics store the other day (for reasons other
than TV equipment) and noted that the particular chain store I was in moved
all their in-stock TV converters to the front aisle by the entrance - just
for those procrastinators.
For now...LOL
So what are you going to do about the 6.5 million homes (with 4.5
consumers per house) = 30 millions consumers who advertisers will not
have access to.

They wouldn't get the boxes when the boxes were free. *What are the
odds they will buy advertised stuff that costs money?

Fortunately, many broadcasters will convert on schedule no matter what.
Delaying the conversion would be likely to affect more viewers because
stations cannot move to their new digital channels until analog channels get
out of the way. *

Why should viewers who got with the program lose stations because of
the few who couldn't be bothered to go pick up a free box?

--
* * * * Lars Eighner http://larseighner.com/
* * * * * * 8 days since Rick Warren prayed over Bush's third term.
* *Obama: No hope, no change, more of the same. Yes, he can, but no, he won't.

Free?

Convenient how you forgot to mention that the REPUBLICAN coupon
program ran out of money and has a waiting list of millions.

Typical winger avoiding responsibility for his actions.

LOL...yeah losing access to 30 million consumers might just make a
difference to the advertisers that broadcasters depend on.

The bright side without all those commercials, people will save more
money, buy less junk and have time to call their Congressmen to
complain.

I wonder how the REPUBLICANS will respond when it is on record that
they voted against the interests of their voters.

I know how the voters will respond the next election.

TMT
I don't think this will be a big item in the next elections. There
are far more important issues going on. If one is so disorganized, so
unable to pull their chit together, so unaware of all the incessant
warnings, I doubt moving the deadline four months will make much, if
any, difference. Unfortunately, there are people that cannot pull
together $40 - $50 for a box now. The way things are going, it's not
going to be any easier for them by June. Surely, Congress has more
pressing interests to deal with.

At least some portion of Congress used some common sense and killed the
analog TV termination extension bill.

February 17, 2009 shall remain the deadline.

Aside: I was in a local electronics store the other day (for reasons other
than TV equipment) and noted that the particular chain store I was in moved
all their in-stock TV converters to the front aisle by the entrance - just
for those procrastinators.

"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message
...
On Jan 28, 10:23 pm, "D. Stussy" wrote:
At least some portion of Congress used some common sense and killed the
analog TV termination extension bill.

February 17, 2009 shall remain the deadline.

Aside: I was in a local electronics store the other day (for reasons
other
than TV equipment) and noted that the particular chain store I was in
moved
all their in-stock TV converters to the front aisle by the entrance -
just
for those procrastinators.

For now...LOL

So what are you going to do about the 6.5 million homes (with 4.5
consumers per house) = 30 millions consumers who advertisers will not
have access to.

Consumers pay companies who pay broadcasters to run ads.

When consumers don't buy products, advertisers don't buy ad time.

In a major recession, 30 millions less consumers buying stuff makes a
big difference.

So how are the Republicans ...the "pro business" Party ...going to fix
that problem?

One of the bright points of this ongoing DTV train wreck is that by
blocking the bill the voting public is reminded which Party is the
problem...the Republicans.

And they will remember that the next time they are in the voting
booth.

So again...how are you going to fix your problem...procrastinator.

---------------
I reply only because the above was in reply to me.

1) It's not my problem. I'm not a procrastinator either. I was ready on
the original 2006 date, having converted my TVs over in 2004.

2) I don't see why the government should do anything about the 6.5 million
households that CHOSE not to avail themselves of the coupon program that
opened in early 2008. Those people had a year to do something and didn't.
The goverment did what they could - they opened and advertised the program.

It's obviouus that "TMT" is a Democrat - who believes that the government
should do everything, even wipe its citizens' asses, because the people are
sheep.

The Republicans did the responsible thing - they cut the potential for
increased costs for TV broadcasters that would be incurred by continuing to
run dual transmitters for another 4 months. Any cost that the public at
large would incur would be the same regardless of which option Congress
took, so why not save the companies some money where it doesn't
inconvenience anyone else?

"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message
...
On Jan 28, 5:33 pm, Lars Eighner wrote:
In our last episode,
, the
lovely and talented Too_Many_Tools broadcast on alt.video.digital-tv:

On Jan 28, 10:23 pm, "D. Stussy" wrote:
At least some portion of Congress used some common sense and killed
the
analog TV termination extension bill.

February 17, 2009 shall remain the deadline.

Aside: I was in a local electronics store the other day (for reasons
other
than TV equipment) and noted that the particular chain store I was in
moved
all their in-stock TV converters to the front aisle by the entrance -
just
for those procrastinators.
For now...LOL
So what are you going to do about the 6.5 million homes (with 4.5
consumers per house) = 30 millions consumers who advertisers will not
have access to.

They wouldn't get the boxes when the boxes were free. What are the
odds they will buy advertised stuff that costs money?

Fortunately, many broadcasters will convert on schedule no matter what.
Delaying the conversion would be likely to affect more viewers because
stations cannot move to their new digital channels until analog channels
get
out of the way.

Why should viewers who got with the program lose stations because of
the few who couldn't be bothered to go pick up a free box?

--
Lars Eighner http://larseighner.com/
8 days since Rick Warren prayed over Bush's third term.
Obama: No hope, no change, more of the same. Yes, he can, but no, he
won't.

Free?

Convenient how you forgot to mention that the REPUBLICAN coupon
program ran out of money and has a waiting list of millions.

Typical winger avoiding responsibility for his actions.

LOL...yeah losing access to 30 million consumers might just make a
difference to the advertisers that broadcasters depend on.

The bright side without all those commercials, people will save more
money, buy less junk and have time to call their Congressmen to
complain.

I wonder how the REPUBLICANS will respond when it is on record that
they voted against the interests of their voters.

I know how the voters will respond the next election.

---------------------
Why do you insist that it's a Republican program? It was instituted under
the control of a Democratic Congress.

One more problem, besides lack of converters,
the lack of coverage by the digital transmitters
in rural areas. The FCC has already admitted
that some rural viewers will be beyond range
of the digital transmitters.
That is the situation here in much of Iowa.
Many of us will need to go to satellite to
have any TV at all!

Doug Smith wrote:
On Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:02:24 +0000, Wes Newell wrote:

On Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:28:47 +0000, Brian Kraft wrote:

baynole2 wrote:

They've been delaying the switch-over for years!
I predict that as June 12th approaches, it will be delayed again.

(I've been ready since way back in twenty ought four).
I think you'll see most stations go ahead and turn off their analog
broadcast on or before Feb. 17. I know a lot already have.

As of this morning, 76 stations had filed paperwork* with the FCC
notifying of plans to shut down analog on the 17th.

It's still pretty early in the process & I expect to see more.


In NE one of the stations had their analog tower blown down - so they've
already switched!

RobertVA wrote:
Jer wrote:
Mike wrote:
On Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:19:10 -0700, (Neill
Massello) wrote:

It's hard to find relevant numbers in any of the general press reports
on this. The last numbers I saw (from early fall 2008) were that $1.3
billion had been allocated to the coupon program and that 19 million
coupons had been used to buy converters. The program has supposedly hit
its limit for outstanding unexpired coupons and has a waiting list of
2.5 million, so I assume that the total number of coupons used so
far is
now much higher than that 19 million.

You might look here.
https://www.ntiadtv.gov/coupon_stats.cfm

Mike O.


Does any of this explain how the program ran out of money before all
the coupons were used?

It's quite simple.

The original legislation only allocated a certain amount of money for
the face value of the coupons, all from SOME of the revenue generated by
the spectrum auctions. Enough people ordered coupons to use all of that
allocation. The remainder of the auction revenue went into the treasury.
Meanwhile, most of the media, congress and the executive branch were
distracted by things like the primaries, conventions, election and
credit crisis, so legislation to add more funding wasn't proposed.

From the standpoint of having opportunities to fine tune things it
probably wasn't a good idea to schedule the converter coupon program to
take place in an election year, but congress was probably hoping voters
would have more time to forget the problems by the 2010 election.

The ninety day expiration on the coupons was intended to prevent people
holding onto the coupons, leaving the converters sitting on store
shelves until early 2009 then rushing to buy the converters at the last
minute, only to find the stores with insufficient stock (in reaction to
the earlier low demand).


And of course it served as price support system to keep the boxes in
stock. I predict that the cost of the boxes will drop as soon as the
coupon program is moribund and the last 90 days have passed.

Ant wrote:
On 1/28/2009 6:52 AM PT, Alan F typed:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.328:

Section 4 (a) says no, stations are not *required* to continue
analog transmission until June.

Have TV stations in Los Angeles, CA, (and other cities) mention if
they are staying on 17th deadline or dealying?

At least several hundred stations have filed in the past 1-2 weeks
that they will be shutting down on February 17. Trip is somehow keeping
track of all of them he http://www.rabbitears.info/termlist.php.

Thanks. So far, nothing in my area. Will check again in a few weeks.

Don't the stations still have to PRODUCE an analog signal (even if they
do not transmit it) to feed to the Cable Companies to serve those
customers on "limited basic" cable service in accordance with the 'must
carry' rules that some stations rely upon?

Don't the stations still have to PRODUCE an analog signal
(even if they do not transmit it) to feed to the Cable
Companies to serve those customers on "limited basic"
cable service in accordance with the 'must carry' rules
that some stations rely upon?


The answer is no. The CATV companies that get the signal
over the air.use government coupons to buy converters and
send the analog signal that they generate.

David