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Will transition to digital TV be delayed?
Apex Digital TV converter boxes are displayed at a Best Buy store in Emeryville, Calif.
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KAI RYSSDAL: There's a television ad that's been in heavy rotation the past couple of weeks. It's an ad about television -- and the coming conversion from analog to digital over-the-air TV signals.
The big question now is when it's actually coming. The switch had been set for February, until the government fund to help people buy the necessary converter boxes ran out of money. The president-elect's people have said he wants a delay. But that could put a lot of television stations on the fritz as Marketplace's Jeff Tyler explains.
JEFF TYLER: For months, TV stations have been running public service announcements.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: At midnight on February 17th, 2009, all televisions will switch from analog to 100 percent digital.
The government is funding $40 coupons for digital converter boxes. But lots of people are still waiting.
Bart Forbes: There are currently, at this point in time, about 2 million coupon requests on the waiting list.
That's Bart Forbes, spokesman for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which oversees the coupon program. Because of Congressional restrictions, the agency has to wait to see how many coupons are used before issuing new ones.
Forbes: If they don't use that coupon, it expires. And so we can then recycle that $40 to send out another coupon.
If the transition is delayed, TV stations face additional expenses.
Bill Fee is general manager of WCPO-TV, the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati. His station now broadcasts in digital and analog.
Bill Fee: In WCPO's case, it's several thousand dollars a month for the analog signal.
Fee says many stations aren't prepared for the extra costs.
Fee: That additional cost has not been budgeted by any of the TV stations past February 18th.
Remember that public service announcement? A delay would force stations to run new PSA's to update viewers. That space might otherwise have been sold to a paying advertiser.
On the other side, first responders are waiting to inherit the old analog airwaves. So a new and improved 911 may be put on hold.
I'm Jeff Tyler for Marketplace.
Wally, I did buy the TV I wanted. It was a very nice analog set, several years ago. When the Gov't decided to make it obsolete, they -took- its value. So, under the constitution, they are supposed to make restitution. $40 is not enough to even buy a converter box.
Why should I, a taxpayer, pay for other's TV converter box? Give up smoking for a week, downgrade your Superbowl beer, ride a bike to save $40 in gas, ... save and be responsible! Yet another example of our pathetic descent into nanny welfare state.
An odd thing about this transition is that while we consumers are making decisions about what equipment (TVs, antennas, converters) to invest in, the television stations' digital broadcasts are NOT full strength. It makes no sense to have to make these buying decisions when we have no clear idea of the result. I think the FCC should require the stations to digitally broadcast at full strength now, as we're making these decisions.
