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Digital TV Coupon Program Under Way Again
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from CNet:
"Federal regulators said Thursday they are going into 'search and rescue' mode to help the millions of consumers unprepared for the phased transition to digital television, which culminates with the June 12 transition deadline. The millions of consumers waiting for coupons for digital converter box coupons will finally receive them within the next two and a half weeks, thanks to emergency funding for the coupon program provided in the stimulus package, said Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, an administrator for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The NTIA is also ratcheting up its outreach to consumers most likely to be unprepared for the transition... FCC commissioners said their agency is also intensifying its outreach, but they acknowledged that while one third of television stations have already dropped their analog signals, the hardest part is yet to come."
We previously discussed the DTV coupon program when it ran out of money in January. The $650 million from the stimulus packages adds to the $1.3 billion that's already been spent.
Spend more money to make more money, right?
So what happens with people that ended up paying full price for a converter because the coupons stopped flowing and 1/3 of the transition (which in many places was nearly a full transition) already happened? Can they just get $40 back with the coupon and their original paid-full-price receipt? Even if they got their full price converter at Circuit City?
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
That $1.3 billion is the amount that has been allocated to be spent. Last I read, less than half of that had actually been spent and the rest was tied up in coupons that had been requested but had neither been used, nor expired yet.
And nothing of value was lost.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
You're missing something with that logic. While most households do have cable/satellite, those can become useless in bad weather (lines breaking, dish swinging in the wind), not to mention random cable outages caused by careless people with backhoes, drivers running into poles, etc. Most sensible people, when asked "Do you want two coupons so that your two cable-equipped sets can continue to receive OTA TV if your cable goes out?" will say "Yes." without giving it a second thought. I'm surprised that the number of people requesting these is not closer to 100% of all TV households.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Even though I have satellite, I am still very much affected by the DTV transition. For example, in my basement I have a traditional OTA TV that I rely on when there is stormy weather. Now, this wouldn't be a problem but A) I live in the midwest, where, in the spring and summer tornado warnings come out of nowhere and it is imperative I get watches/warnings along with radar so I can know if a tornado is about to strike. B) My satellite does not get great signal when it is storming outside.
So yes, even though I do not technically "need" a DTV converter box, I am seriously considering buying one for the news coverage during severe weather.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
In a severe thunderstorm under a tornado watch? You bet your you-know-what I switch to OTA. A few extra seconds notice of approaching tornadoes can save your life.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Send taxpayer money to Chinese manufacturers of converter boxes; to accommodate the bandwidth auctions to major US telecom companies: who intend to soak customers to get their money back?
Am I missing something???
So, let's just get the effing show on the effing road, dudes,... I bought my DTV converter, with coupons, over a year ago, and still get a crappy signal because 5% of the numb-nuts put it off until the last minute,... So all the DTV stations around here only broadcast signals at 25% power. So hurry the frak up so the rest of us get a decent DTV signal!
About 3 weeks ago, power was lost due to a storm. On the 2nd day of no power, I ran an extension cable from the TV to the my big UPS that still had energy remaining because I shut down the computers soon after the power went out (knowing it would be a while before it came back on). Nothing was coming through via Comcast. That could be because their lines were damaged in the storm, or their equipment was without power. I could get TV over the air from 2 stations, one in analog (which isn't anymore), and one in digital (because I could power my digital tuner from the UPS). People who have cable and no fallback means to receive TV in the event of a storm or accident that takes out the cable wiring or equipment is ... unprepared.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
I have to say I am surprised at the result. Even 60 miles from the transmitters with a modest antenna that gave me a very snowy signal on analog, I have twice as many channels and they are razor sharp. There have been a few transient artifacts but not the hopeless pile of random polygons I feared because of my marginal signal strength. I was very afraid the damn thing wouldn't work at all out here and I'd be stuck for the difference between the true cost and the coupon.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
So, can someone explain what the DTV coupon program's funding has to do with stimulating the economy?
Well I'm a crazy [insert whatever] who wants to know why the hell we're giving handouts for TV for anybody! Nobody will die without American Idol.
It's not a handout. It's a (partial) reimbursement from the government to the previous users of the bandwidth for seizing the bandwidth and selling it for billions, which went into the treasury.
The analog television system worked just fine for what it did. A LOT of people bought equipment in the good faith expectation that it would continue to be usable for the equipment's life.
Then the government decided that, if it forced the TV stations to switch over to digital, they could provide a replacement service that would be better than the existing system (which wastes lots of bandwidth to reduce analog interference), it could re-sieze a lot of that bandwidth and auction it off to other users.
- The existing broadcasters get replacement bandwidth and can get more use out of it by multiplexing other services into it - which helps them pay for the new equipment.
- More use gets made of the total bandwidth, thanks to the new services enabled in the auctioned spectrum. So the buyers and their customers are enabled.
- But the old viewers are hosed. They have to upgrade perfectly good equipment or buy a converter to continue getting the level of service they already bought into. There are a LOT of them, and many of them don't have a lot of spare money to throw at the extra expense.
So the government is spending PART of the money it got from the auction of the spectrum to pay PART of the cost of the converter boxes for the viewers.
It's like paying (but less than market rate) for land seized by eminent domain.
The origin of property rights is making use of and improvements on previously unowned property in the expectation that you can then continue to do so. By that definition, the broadcasters and the viewers had a property right in the spectrum previously used for analog broadcast TV from which they've been evicted by the government for its own profit. So it's reasonable for them to expect payment for their loss and trouble.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
LIBERTARIANS:
LISTEN CAREFULLY: The government made a NET GAIN on this transition.
They sold the spectrum reclaimed from analogue broadcasts for much more than this coupon program costs. It's not donating taxpayer money for TVs, it's compensating people for re-selling THEIR assets (radio spectrum) to private companies, something the government should be doing more often IMHO. And before anyone jumps up and down about how "people should be allowed to broadcast on any channel they choose", realise that no radio communication would work if that were the case - everyone would broadcast over everyone else, no-one would receive the signal they want, and it would be anarchy. There needs to be some authorisation for maintaining radio signals, and as bad as they are, the government are the only ones capable and willing (private enterprises don't have authority over one another, and no market force compels them to maintain the spectrum in the interests of the people).
Libertarians with mod points, moderate this post to oblivion if you want.