Public announcements, brochures and billboards for the past year have been sending the same message to Americans: Prepare to transition from analog television to digital television on Feb. 17.
Now, despite all the information viewers have received, President-Elect Barack Obama wants to delay the transition because consumers are not ready.
Nearly 20 million households that rely solely on over-the-air television signals will be affected by the end of analog broadcasting. Millions more households that receive over-the-air signals on secondary TV sets will also be affected.
The proposed delay has stirred up anger on both sides of the table — those for the Feb. 17 transition and those hoping to delay it.
“Consumers have been bombarded with information regarding the Feb. 17 firm transition date, and all available information shows that nearly 100 percent of consumers are aware of the transition and are taking the necessary steps,” said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association.
As of September, the Federal Communications Commission had spent $2.5 million educating the public about the switch and had an additional $12 million to be used over the past several months.
Obama’s transition team has said not enough consumers have received the $40 coupon for a converter box and the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) has reportedly run out of the coupons.
“It is CEA’s belief that converter boxes are available now in sufficient supply and consumers are aware of and prepared for the transition,” Shapiro said. “Legitimate concerns about the coupon program should be addressed immediately by Congress by addressing the bureaucratic accounting rules that are holding up distribution of coupons despite their availability in abundance.”
NTIA received more than 26 million requests for the coupons, and more than 9.9 million have been redeemed, NTIA spokesperson Todd Sedmak said during the FCC’s September test switch in Wilmington,…