Digital TV, Big Government and Entitlement
The Senate on Monday voted to delay the long awaited transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months to June 12. Democrats and President Obama felt that the delay was needed due to growing concerns that too many Americans won’t be ready for the currently scheduled Feb. 17 changeover.
The Nielsen Co. estimates that more than 6.5 million U.S. households have not taken the steps necessary to ensure that they will be able to receive the digital broadcasts. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.VA., author of the bill to push back the deadline said.
Delaying the upcoming DTV switch is the right thing to do. I firmly believe that our nation is not yet ready to make this transition at this time.
The switch from analog to digital broadcast will free up a large chunk of wireless spectrum that can be used for commercial wireless services and interoperable emergency response networks. The switchover has been scheduled since 2005, which means that Americans have had over 4 years to get ready for the change. I think that 4 years was more than adequate for Americans to have taken the steps necessary to be able to receive digital broadcasts. The government has made available for some time now free coupons that any person could request that would cover the estimated $40 – $80 cost of the converter that is necessary for people without cable or satellite to continue to receive free over-the-air broadcasts.
The NTIA, the arm of the Commerce Department administering the coupon program, is now sending out new coupons to replace the ones that went unredeemed. Apparently a significant portion of the 6.5 million U.S. households that are still not ready for the transition failed to take advantage of the availability of the coupons. Why should the transition be delayed until June when Americans have already had 4 years to prepare and even been offered free coupons to cover the cost of the needed converter box? You could probably delay the transition for a year and you would still have millions who are not ready. The wisest thing to do is go ahead with the original Feb. 17 changeover which would force the procrastinators to finally obtain the converter box they have had 4 years to obtain already.
But what really irritates me the most about this delay is the statement made by Gene Kimmeiman, vice president for federal policy at Consumers Union, who argues that millions of Americans, particularly low-income and elderly viewers, will pay the price because:
The government has failed to deliver the converter boxes these people deserve just to keep watching free, over-the-air broadcast signals.
I didn’t know that it was the governments responsibility in the first place to provide free converter boxes to anyone. Did the government provide these people with their televisions? Despite this the government did offer free converter boxes and these same people simply did not take the government up on the offer. Is it really possible that low income and elderly people could not have saved the $40 – $80 needed to purchase a converter box over a 4 year period? I am sure they spent far more than that on other non-essentials during those 4 years. Maybe President Obama should create a new government agency whose responsibilities include going to each of the 6.5 million households and installing a converter box free of charge. That would be one way to create some new jobs. Isn’t that ultimately what a lot of people envision the governments job to be? To take care of all our needs from birth to death. Why take any personal responsibility for anything when you can blame it all on the government? Yeah, that’s the ticket.
