Some reading on the subject of the digital switch that was supposed to take place on February 17th has left Congress and people in the throes of somewhat of a dilemna. The NTIA which is supposed to manage the coupon program that gives $40 coupons to people toward a digital tuner box for their old TV’s needs 7 million dollars for administration fees. It seems half of the coupons that were issued by the NTIA were never redeemed.
Congress budgeted 1.34 billion dollars for these $40 coupons in 2005. The Department of Commerce said that it would run out of money, but could if allowed, redistribute the money they didn’t actually spend. That’s money (half) that wasn’t actually spent because of lost, expired and unredeemed coupons. NTIA claims that it needs 7 million to reprogram new coupons, so that the 1.34 billion can actually be dispersed. This was supposed to be part of the economic stimulus plan, but was ignored.
What Congress did do was extend the deadline for the digital transition to June 12. They also gave broadcasters the option of making the transition on February 17th as planned since 2005. All of the Portland, Oregon stations here said that they were going all digital in February, but none of them did. I think KATU was the first to say it was staying in analog until June. The rest of the broadcasters couldn’t be seen to be ogres, so they all stayed analog.
I am an antenna user. I used Netflix, Redbox and rent movies and always found free antenna TV good enough and thought cable was far too expensive for what it was. Being frugal and pretty poor, I always try to keep those little monthly expenses that add up to a lot… down to a minimum.
I have one good antenna that I bought. I was considering buying a couple more for my TV’s but here’s the question. It looks like some or all of the broadcasters will be going back into the high VHF band after the digital transition. It is the most friendly broadcast band for DTV broadcasting. It’s really possible that normal old rabbit ears will be good enough after the switch. Currently the digital signals are in the UHF band, which requires a better antenna. I really don’t want to plunk down $40 a piece for antennas I’m not going to need in June.
So Congress extended the deadline, didn’t provide any funds to get those people who were going to feel left out and made sure my TV picture would be lousy until June. I may have to buy a better antenna then. No one is sure.
It appears that even if funding were approved today that IBM, the coupon distributor, would be too slow to actually get the coupons to people by June 12. August would be closer.
John Brandis…
Excellent insight on Video News ” Blog Archive ” A Little Closer to the DTV Transition. With all of the “junk” sites out there it’s refreshing to actually find a website with Antennas And Digital Tv And Dtv information when searching for the word …