Comments on: 2.8 million not ready for DTV transition

As the June 12 deadline for the digital-TV switch approaches, the number of homes not ready represents 2.5 percent of the market, according to a report by Nielsen.

[ospideyo]

I agree with most of the posters here, if you do not know about the digital transition then you probably live under a rock. This has been going on for years.

[rashimahp]

I feel that if they want to change to digital tv, then so be it. There are a lot of single parents in this world that are trying to do the best that they can do. There are a lot of changes that are being made, and I really can not afford all the digital tv stuff. I would rather have a roof over my kids heads and to feed them than to have this tv change stuff. It is not the fact that I did not hear that they were changing our tv, but its all about making sure my kids have the things that they need. Think about single mother of three boys with a 15% cut in my pay what do you think is more important to me? With all the crazy stuff they show on tv my kids will not be missing anything at all. I have a computer so if there is something I need to know all I have to do is look it up.

[BCF1968]

How is digital tv costing you anything? The cost of a converter box of which MOST is paid for by a coupon. I got an "expensive" converter box. Mine cost $65 plus tax after my coupon was applied I was only paying a whopping $25. Since when is $25 or even less some kind of big expense?

[SergeM256]

If you could afford to have a computer and Internet connection you could afford $10 or $20 for a convertor.

@ BCF1968
@SergeM256

You guys are making sweeping assumptions about the nature of someone's finances and the relative importance of how money should be allocated. My girlfriend works with plenty of people (single mothers, struggling families) to provide support services that wrestle with questions like this everyday. "TV for me and the kids or rice / cans of soup?"

Simply because someone has a computer and internet connection doesn't mean they have the money for that AND other things.

1. Some people get hand-me-down computers. In my large extended family of 54 people, 12 have computers that were donated to them by other family members or from an agency trying to get computers into the hands of low-income families.

2. Although internet connections can be had for as little as 3.99 per month for dial-up it still doesn't mean a struggling family isn't debating the merits of canceling the service (especially as the poster said w a 15% paycut). Of those 12 family members, 10 share connections with their neighbors or free wi-fi in the area because they can't afford the monthly fee.

3. The coupons have been available off and on for over a year. But the boxes are not always available. I got my coupon in Feb 2008. But no boxes were available in any store locally until August 2008. The coupons expired and ended up being useless.

Not everyone has access to the relatively plush living experience you guys seem to enjoy. @rashimahp simply argued that she is being counted among the "not ready" and she doesn't care.

[SergeM256]

Who are these peole who are not ready? May be they are some really old people, still watching black-and-white TV and not capable to plug in converter box? Or may be some really poor people who cannot afford $10 (with coupon) to buy converter box?
Turn off analog signal already.

[rdupuy11]

meaningless.

If they had just done the switchover, the number of people today, still not recieving tv that they want, would be near zero.

There would have been nothing faster and cheaper in encouraging people to switch, than having their tv stop working.

[RoyalWitCheese]

If they're not on Cable, Satellite or have a converter box, and you pull the Analog signal, who are they going to complain to?

"Hey my free TV is gone, I'm gonna complain to ...." - The air?

they complain to the FCC, numbskull.

They are still wasting their time on other lame complaints like the Janet Jackson / SuperBowl incident. (Justin Timberlake's lame-ass cousin wrote an OpEd article saying "my kids were hurt by it. oh do something. oh do something FCC").

in feb, according to the figures above, 6.8% of TV viewing homes weren't ready. That's 6,664,000 or roughly 26.7 million people. The typical expectation is that for every one (1) person that complains there are 10-12 others who feel the same. If 1 in 10 complained, that's 2.6 million people: 1) the FCC would be overwhelmed. 2) the Obama administration would look bad (even though this transition has been planned and approved by congress since Bush Sr.).

The complainers will go somewhere. The FCC first. The congressman second. The polls third.

6.8% in Jan.
but 2.5% now.

That's 2,450,000 homes.
That's roughly 9,800,000 people.

If 1 in 10 complain then it's 980,000 ~= 1 million complaints.

...still a lot.

[scottthesculptor]

Talk about legal speak.

"2.8 million homes still lack the necessary equipment to receive digital transmissions"

Technically it just means they don't have ATSC compatible gear.
Doesn't mean that those homes will be unable to watch TV.

It seems you've broadly defined "TV"

Does that mean also watching DVDs and video tapes is watching TV?
Does that mean watching IPTV on their old analog TV as a display is watching TV?
Does that mean that they are watching digital broadcast television signals in someplace other than their home (their friends house, their local bar) and that constitutes they can watch TV?

This statement is clear. You seem to find fault where there is simply fact.

[Dan7637]

so there are 2.8 million retards that didnt apply for their coupons and still arent ready

so many stupid people out there, really like there wasnt enough warnings and reminders

[OFC_Rocco]

I have no pity for anyone who has ignored all the talk for over a year, if you are not ready by now with the gov. discounts and all, to freaking bad......

You're just as ignorant.
This has been talked about for 14 years since it first passed.
The TV, print, and billboard promotions started almost 2 years ago.
They quadrupled in the amount of exposure over 1.25 years ago.

For most of the people who aren't "ready", it's either by choice (they don't care since they get it over broadband) or they are unable (e.g., they're infirmed, they're in a group situation, they cannot afford even $80 since Soc.Sec. doesn't provide enough, etc.,...)

[manualfunky]

wow people are dumb in your country guys...

[tzu13]

*Does a quick scan of the Constitution*

...Nope. Nothing here saying people have the inalienable right to watch TV. Change it over already.

[MD_Willington]

Oh no !

You mean the people that are not prepared may have to actually do something other than sit in front of the mind numbing idiot box - like read a book, go outside or even worse, actually interact with their children

/MD shakes fist towards the heavens "oh the humanity" {/drama


Quick free DTV's for all, it's for the good of the children !

[ferricoxide]

The worst part of this whole thing was the TV sellers that used it as an opportunity to convince people that they *NEEDED* to switch to the ginormous, flat-screen HDTV if they wanted to be able to watch TV after the switch. It was even more annoying in areas that are almost exclusively served by cable.

Almost as annoying was the cable CSRs that tried to mislead people into upgrading to the digital-tier so that they wouldn't lose their signal when the DTV transition happened.

One of the down sides of all this was the confusion that helping the hapless has caused, overall. I know of more than a few people that have cable TV that have said to me, "does this mean we'll have to do the rescan on the 12th?" Ugh.

Good comment about how the cable companies / satellite companies capitalized on the opportunity to push for more expensive services without the subscriber learning what's really needed.

Weak comment about the "annoying exclusively served by cable." Most of the media plans are done regionally by their ad agencies. In almost all areas currently served by a cable provider, only 65%, on average, are subscribers. This also includes satellite and the new broadband TV services (their numbers are stealing away from cable). 99% have pass-thru (wired for it). But even with this kind of HW penetration CHURN keeps subscription around 65%.

Also, the government did a PSA media plan and a paid media plan. That means that as part of the broadcasters obligation to serve the television viewing public they need to provide free broadcast time of Public Service Announcements. But the DTV transition team's media plan also included an outbound marketing campaign to increase awareness.

Therefore, many cable providers had both reasons to run an increasing number of TV promos and an opportunity to shape the discussion towards adoption of the cable services. Must-carry TV stations would also have the promos. Ad revenue generating TV promos would help the bottom line. It all makes sense to me.

[macsruleoverpccrap]

You know, it has nothing to do with the media. What it has to do with is social priorities. As typical Minorities complain about what they "don't" have, so they can get it for free from the taxpayer. African American an Hispanic populations feel it necessary to buy 22" rims for there broken down cars, or buy new $300 sneakers, or get a new tooth covered in gold, then they do switching to DTV. We are so politically correct in the country that we glaze over these things. You can say "oh what a racist comment" but all you have to do is look and listen. I work in retail, and although that isn't the holy grail of knowledge, all you have to do is listen. I can't begin to hear the African American and Hispanic people that come into the store chatting about how they are waiting for the government to give them a handout, all because they need new larger wheels or a new wardrobe.

So say what you will, they people who aren't ready is based on a variety of issues, but maybe these people should look at themselves and not buy the new gold teeth, or new "studded" hair pick.

So you seem you seem to espouse an authoritative knowledge of what the African-American or Hispanic population is saying, buying, and prioritizing. The African-American population is about 13.5% of the total U.S. pop. The Hispanic is about 14.8% (and you've seemed to have conspicuously omitted other ethic groups in your post). Yet your main argument essentially asserts that "typical Minorities [sic] complain[ts]" expect the taxpayer (assuming that you mean the remaining non-minority taxpayers) should pay for and support these two ethnic groups.

How many unique people do you actually see everyday? 30? 100? Let's say in your store you see 75 unique people every day during any given week. Working 5 days a week you see 375 unique people per week. of the 47.5 million Hispanics and the 41.7 million African-Americans you have better insight and gathered better information than any professional polling agency, any newspaper, the social-service agencies, and any statistical modeling groups.

Further, that you've chosen gold teeth, hair picks, rims as the means to support your argument shows that 1. you're bigotry motivates your rhetoric. 2. that you have limited your total potential population that represents your expertise to less than 2% of the people you might actually see in a week... no, let's be generous 10%. Essentially 37-38 people per week represents your argument of a population of 89,200,000 people.

please go away and come back with a stronger argument about why these minority groups' DTV readiness is lacking.

[Stefaninafla]

Too bad the house has cable, I was actually looking forward to the TV going black...
Oh well, 'accidentally" cutting the cable line is an option.

[tbelltown]

I'm just glad my Comcast service won't be affected by this whole mess - thank God for cable!