"The Senate passed a bill on Monday to delay the nationwide switch to digital TV signals, giving consumers nearly four more months to prepare…Many lawmakers worry that an estimated 20 million mostly poor, elderly and rural households are not ready for the switch, which requires owners of older television sets receiving over-the-air signals to buy a converter box or subscribe to cable or satellite TV."

What are they worried about?

Government wasted plenty to avoid this potential "problem"

Population of the United States = 303,824,640

6% is the "concern".

Senate passes bill to delay digital TV switch

I read that this delay will cost PBS 20M....

HOTEL said

I read that this delay will cost PBS 20M….

:o

It unbelievable that because the laziest and/or dumbest can't get their butt off the couch long enough to address the problem the whole country has to be put on hold and waste millions of dollars.

Get used to it because that's our future.

dusky256fc said

It unbelievable that because the laziest and/or dumbest can't get their butt off the couch long enough to address the problem the whole country has to be put on hold and waste millions of dollars.

Get used to it because that's our future.

I think it's more for the senior citizens. I know for instance my grandmother got a coupon from the government for a free box because she has a TV that has rabbit ears, the coupon came late December. She sent away for it but was then told pretty much, sorry we're all out of boxes. So if she wanted to be able to watch TV she has to either buy a box for $40 or she can't watch TV. So how's that fair to her or any other person with that problem? They sent out more coupons then they had boxes. Here's an idea why not see how many boxes you have then send out that many coupons. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure that out

Why not just make people buy a new TV?  They didn't give away CD players when cassettes went out of style.

walty12 said

Why not just make people buy a new TV?  They didn't give away CD players when cassettes went out of style.

because TVs aren't the problem. It has nothing to do with your TV. If you don't have a digital cable box, or a dish and you were still using rabbit ears to get local stations then after Feb. 12th or whatever the date was you wouldn't be able to get service anymore. You'd need that special box they are sending coupons out for, or a dish/cable box

Jab979 said

walty12 said

Why not just make people buy a new TV?  They didn't give away CD players when cassettes went out of style.

because TVs aren't the problem. It has nothing to do with your TV. If you don't have a digital cable box, or a dish and you were still using rabbit ears to get local stations then after Feb. 12th or whatever the date was you wouldn't be able to get service anymore. You'd need that special box they are sending coupons out for, or a dish/cable box

Got it.

walty12 said

They didn't give away CD players when cassettes went out of style.

:D

Great reply!

Actually, it's 6%, not .06%, which is a pretty sizable portion of the country.  Twenty million people – you're talking about something larger than the state of Florida.  For these people, TV is likely their major source of news and information.  They aren't as likely to be on the Internet or subscribe to newspapers.  Rural connectivity is a big issue that is being tackled little by little, and $40 might not be easy to come by for elderly people on fixed incomes or living on Social Security.