[opendtv] News: Some Press for More Notice of Transition in TV
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 07:50:22 -0400
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/business/media/07digital.html?th&emc=th
Some Press for More Notice of Transition in TV
By AUSTIN BOGUES
Published: July 7, 2008
WASHINGTON - Consumer advocates will gather on Capitol Hill this week
to lobby for more money to publicize the big change in television
next February, when people who have analog TVs will no longer get any
picture unless they have cable service or a digital converter box.
------------
NOTE: The following is the name of the photographer and the caption
for a photo of an antenna in the Bronx. It's good to know that TV
antenna will become relics on February 17th 2009 ...
G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times
TV antennas like this one in the Bronx will become relics after Feb.
17, 2009, when all television will be broadcast digitally.
-------------
But would more publicity make any difference to people like Bertha
Graham, who steadfastly refuse to make the switch?
Ms. Graham, 69, lives here in Washington and owns four of the
estimated 70 million televisions that rely on over-the-air signals to
operate. She says she is perfectly content with her rabbit-ear
antennas, which enable her to watch a few shows each day (most
faithfully, "The Price is Right").
But on Feb. 17, 2009, Ms. Graham will no longer be able to see Drew
Carey give away valuable prizes unless she pays $60 to $70 to buy a
digital converter box, or obtains a government coupon that subsidizes
$40 of the cost of a box (limit two coupons per customer).
Ms. Graham says she lives on a fixed income and does not have money
for unplanned expenses. Her son has offered to get the converter
boxes for her and help install them, but she has yet to accept his
offer, saying that she disagrees with the whole thing on principle.
"You would expect this stuff in Cuba, the places where there is a
dictatorship," Ms. Graham said. "You shouldn't have to buy converter
boxes or do whatever they say to do. You should be able to use what
you've got."
Washington officials are worried that millions of people like Ms.
Graham will lose access to an important lifeline.
"Making the transition to digital is not simply a matter of being
able to watch wrestling or 'American Idol' or reruns of 'Friends,' "
Mark Lloyd of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a nonprofit
advocacy group, said at a Congressional hearing in June. At stake, he
said, "is the ability of the nation's most vulnerable populations to
maintain uninterrupted access to their key source of news and
information and emergency warnings: free, over-the-air television."
While some people are confused by the technology or have been given
bad second-hand information about the process, others, like Ms.
Graham, are just plain stubborn about it. ("We've got a long ways to
go," she said. "It's not February yet.")
Whatever the reason, officials say, last-minute demand for digital
converter boxes could be so overwhelming that millions of people -
many of them elderly, low-income or disabled - will lose service.
On Monday, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights will release a
report that criticizes the government's publicity efforts so far.
"The cost of a Senate campaign in Ohio in 2006 was nearly $9
million," according to the group's news release, "but for the
nationwide campaign to educate consumers about the DTV transition,
Congress has so far allocated only $5 million."
The transition will disproportionately affect African-American and
Hispanic households, according to Mr. Lloyd, who is the group's vice
president for strategic initiatives. His organization wants the
government to eliminate the expiration dates on discount coupons for
converter boxes.
As of June 25, more than 17 million coupons had been mailed to
consumers and 4.4 million had been redeemed. However, nearly
one-tenth of the coupons that have been mailed have already expired,
according to Todd Sedmak, a spokesman for the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration.
"It's still a work in progress. It's a steep hill," said
Representative Jane Harman, Democrat of California, who serves on the
House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
Anita Santiago, who is 45 and lives in Brooklyn, said that she and
several friends had discussed their confusion about the transition.
Few of her friends had seen the public service announcements on
television promoting the change.
"It's just really hitting now," she said.
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