Let the Bread and Circuses Continue!

So the US won't have DTV until Jan '12 or Jan '16?

If the next prezzes observe the same political logic, no US DTV until we switch to metric (i.e., nevah)?

Pierce: Just about everywhere is now broadcasting DTV, so that's not the problem. It's that a lot of people, especially poor people in rural areas and the elderly don't have tvs that can receive digital signals (or the desire or means to subscribe to cable/sattelite tv) and the voucher program for buying converter boxes has run out of money.

Oh noes, it would be terrible if people were forced to turn to non-TV sources for information and entertainment.

So the people who were to lazy to apply for a coupon will have to spend $50 for a converter box. If they have not done so by now, what makes anyone think they will do so by June? It is not like this transition is catching anyone (at least anyone who regularly watches TV) by surprize. I guess in June we will pass another delay, then another, then another. Oh fuck let's just stick to analog and forget of the DTV bs.

bunch of lazy people(generalization). I know 2 people who don't have cable and haven't picked up a converter. One of them just got back from Wal-mart from picking up bags of chips and some 2 liters of coke. Her excuse... I just don't have the time to get one.

I'm still offended that we 1) gave away the spectrum, which was worth billions of dollars and 2) taxpayers are paying for the converter boxes!

The only bread I care about is the $6.5B bump the NIH just got in the stimulus bill, bringing it up to $10B. Hooray!

Now if only it would pass... The other Senate Repubs (besides Specter, who co-sponsored the amendment) probably see this as "pork" anyway...

The problem isn't just that the converter box coupon program is out of money, it's that they need to wait for some people's coupons to expire before they can send out more. One of my coworkers is still waiting for her coupon, and she isn't going to get a box without a coupon, because she just doesn't watch that much TV.

But at the rate newspapers are going in some places, you might need TV to get any news at all. And what's wrong with PBS?

"The problem isn't just that the converter box coupon program is out of money, it's that they need to wait for some people's coupons to expire before they can send out more. One of my coworkers is still waiting for her coupon, and she isn't going to get a box without a coupon, because she just doesn't watch that much TV."

Good lord, why don't they just ditch the coupon and have people send in the receipt and the box top after they buy the converter?

If Kenner was able to master this 30 years ago with their Star Wars figures, it shouldn't be a big problem.

I can't afford vacations to Hawaii. So you know what I do? I don't go on vacations to Hawaii.

I find it mildly entertaining that the "problem" is perceived to be anything other than peoples' sense of entitlement.

Why is TV seen as a necessity rather than a luxury, anyway?

But then I would say that; I get all my news from teh internets.

"I'm still offended that we 1) gave away the spectrum, which was worth billions of dollars and 2) taxpayers are paying for the converter boxes!"

Gave away the spectrum? The segments of analog spectrum going to private concerns where auctioned to the highest bidder. The auction raised a total of 19.1 billion dollars for the government. The money for the converter box coupons by the way was one of the things that the money raised at auction paid for.

thanks

We can't watch morning tv....Call the president!!!!

Hey go figure...you can...

I am one of the many who finds it amusing that American culture considers television of such great value, the government will buy people new TV equipment to ensure that not one person is forced to miss a show.

I am minded of one episode of Max Headroom, in which it is implied that within this dystopian show the government distributes free TVs to everyone in order to keep the people too distracted to realise how terrible their lives are.