Obama Urges Delay In Digital TV Transition

President-elect Says Too Many Americans With Analog TV Sets Won't Be Ready For Feb. Switch

(CBS/ AP)  President-elect Barack Obama is urging Congress to postpone the Feb. 17 switch from analog to digital television broadcasting, arguing that too many Americans who rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air channels won't be ready.

In a letter to key lawmakers Thursday, Obama transition team co-chair John Podesta noted that the Commerce Department has run out of money for coupons to subsidize digital TV converter boxes for consumers. People who don't have cable or satellite service or a new TV with a digital tuner will need the converter boxes to keep their older analog sets working.

Obama officials are also concerned that the government is not doing enough to help consumers prepare for and navigate the transition.

"With coupons unavailable, support and education insufficient, and the most vulnerable Americans exposed, I urge you to consider a change to the legislatively mandated analog cutoff date," Podesta wrote.

Just as the economic downturn has people foregoing expensive purchases like new TVs, government aid to buy converter boxes dries up, reported CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. Those hardest hit are the elderly, the poor and rural Americans. And the government isn't very sympathetic, Whitaker reports.

"If they do not get their coupon in time, we recommend that they either buy a converter box without a coupon, buy another television, or connect to cable, satellite or another pay television service," says Meredith Atwell Baker, with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Congress required that broadcasters switch from analog to digital broadcasts, which are more efficient, to free up valuable chunks of wireless spectrum. The newly available room in the airwaves can be used for commercial wireless services and for emergency-response networks.

Podesta's letter went to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Commerce committees. Congress mandated the Feb. 17 changeover and would have to pass a new law to postpone the date.

[barbaram99]

I have to get a TV with head phone jack as I can''t hear it at low vol and the cc helps me as I use it, I have an ext TV card for computer and the cc don''t work. I put my old TV I had since 04 in the wash/dry room and someone took it to their apt. That fine with me. I have a nice TV that runns both formats. I perfer the flat panel TV 19 inch. I welcomr the new ATSC format. Seattle has both format running, I go to the digital as it is clearer. We will as a nation move to it. I think people might be scare to give up analog for digital. I have to trust it will work. I was scacred when I first sat at my computer 2+ years ago. Got over it.

[tmittelstaed]

Some of the comments here from people claiming their ancient relative has an antique TV with a dial just make me shake my head. When I was younger one of my hobbies was fixing people''s TV''s and this idea that older TV''s are better is sheer rubbish. TV''s until the 70''s had vacuum tubes and the average tube didn''t last more than 10 years, that is why you don''t see operating TV''s any longer that are older than the mid-70''s. And the 70''s-80''s TVs used discrete semiconductors and today most of them are falling apart due to thermal stressing of solder joints and suchlike. In the 80''s, Asia flooded the market with cheap TV''s using integrated circuits and it''s a c r a p shoot on those models - some models are still in service with perfect pictures, some were trashed years ago due to funny problems like the TV shutting off for no reason. It wasn''t until the last 20 years that we really started seeing TV models sold with some decent reliability.
In a few months from now, people will be scrapping perfectly good TV''s with crystal-clear pictures right and left as they replace them with HDTVs. It is just going to take the price of the new flat screen TV''s to drop to the $200 range. Anyone with an old TV needs to start asking around since there''s going to be a lot of much newer and better TV''s that people will want you to haul away for free.
And by this time next year your going to see the converter boxes starting to be given away and dumped.

[tmittelstaed]

Some of the comments on this blog regarding the coupon program are really ignorant.

People are complaining about coupons expiring and want to know why they have a short expiration date. Well that is really simple - the program assumes if you haven''t bought a converter box in 90 days then you really don''t want one that bad - and the expiration guarantees that the funds allocated to your coupons you didn''t use will be available for someone else to use with their coupons. In fact there''s a waiting list right now and as unused coupons expire the money is being used to satisfy requests on the waiting list.

People want to know why the coupons weren''t published in the paper. Well that would make it impossible to serialize the coupons which would allow widespread counterfeiting. it would also allow people to stockpile converters then resell them after Feb 2009.

People want to know why the government didn''t just distribute the boxes directly. The reason is that this pushes support of the converter to the retailer - and some people are going to want to ask questions on how to use the converter box even though most of them are very basic devices.

[barbaram99]

Men and their sport programme. Ye left that out.

[libh8er]

That''s right....there are too many STUPID people out there who rely on analog TV in order to catch the CBS Evening News and Oprah. Can''t deprive those losers of their source of propaganda.

If we switched, PEBO would lose a third of his voters!

[barbaram99]

I use the ads on TV to go to the bathroom .I tune them out. I play a paw of solitaire. Mainly it sits there . I don''t turn it on since I bought a clip on light. Need that to see computer. In my day we had CBS,NBC and ABC. Foster mums would not let us watch TV growing up. We heard Baseball on the radio as love hear them play. we will have to wait and see what happens. I just get the local stations by rabbit ears.

[vexit]

If it gets us out of the house and doing something. we''ll save money because we won''t be conned by the stupid commercials telling us we need all this stuff that we don''t.

[barbaram99]

I can''t have a saving -gov rule. I don''t smoke,don''t drink. I am handicapped. I have TV. As fer churches. For get them. I don''t go. TV for me is not the centre of attn. i will turn it on if I need to hear the info or watch a programme worth watching. i let very few in the apt. I don''t live alone. Am in Seattle and been up just about all night. Got a nasty cold is why. The poor we are here and will be here just as always and will be. I would rather inter act than try to see some that i can''t. Alot of it is trash from hollywoodland. Growing up we did not watch much TY. I rather play a paw of solitaire.

[wrmscvsuv]

Come on folks, these people have had four years or more to be saving their nickels, dimes, and quarters...if not for a new TV or satellite, then certainly a converter box.

I''ve found that many folks are poor not necessarily because of their economic conditions as much as their stupidity. They always seem to be able to buy beer, cigarettes, or narcotics, but never the staples.

If this were over medicine or medical care it would be a different matter, but please, digital TV? Forget it.

[rrozsa-2009]

And now I''ll shut up.

[rrozsa-2009]

Posted by spiritwalk at 05:08 AM : Jan 09, 2009

===============

Kudos on another hilarious post today!

[rrozsa-2009]

The TV my great aunt has was bought when my great uncle was still alive and working, otherwise she would not have it. Her TV is very old still has a dial tuner with vhf and uhf settings. If I had to guess as to how old it is I would have to say over 30 years old.

----------------------Posted by DebinOK1 at 10:05 PM : Jan 08, 2009

==================

Sorry, Deb, I didn''t see your response until I had posted my own. Didn''t mean to take the words out of your mouth!

[rrozsa-2009]

If food is so hard to come by for these people, why did they waste money on a TV ?


------------------Posted by libra217 at 09:55 PM : Jan 08, 2009

============

Many are elderly widows who have had the same TV for 30 years, and it is the ONLY thing they have to keep them company. They have no car, are too old to drive even if they did, and often no phone. They are what we used to call "shut-ins". Like it or not, there are a lot of them right there in your own community if you''ll take the time to look. The small homes with screened in porches where you never see anyone coming or going.

[rrozsa-2009]

Some churches with "shut-in" ministries are stepping up to the plate. If you have someone in your family who still has a dial tuner from 30 years ago and not even a phone (a typical "shut-in" that our Youth ministry groups go to visit), I suggest contacting some of your local churches. Someone will want to help.

[rrozsa-2009]

Why haven''t we heard the ACLU lobbying that this conversion is unfair to the poor and therefore unconstitutional? The poor or infirmed are the majority ones who still have old TV''s and don''t have the means to get converter boxes, and usually you''ll hear Jessee Jackson or some other activist jumping on this type of high profile issue..... I''m surprised I haven''t even heard the race card played by now!

[rrozsa-2009]

What the heck put a dang coupon in the paper for all of americans for these things. Use it as part of the Porn Industries TARP bailout!!! This DTV coupon program is being run by Mr. Brown the former FEMA director I think. Its a sham!!!

---------------Posted by janefondu at 07:01 PM : Jan 08, 2009
==============

That''s a good idea -- publish the coupons in the paper to the public, especially since the expired used ones can''t be replaced. I read that the sponsoring agency says they have "run out of money", but they are probably making that projection based on the total number of coupons sent out, even though many of them will never be redeemed. This whole thing is a fiasco.

Whose moronic idea was it to make them expire in 90 days and then mail them by snail mail? If they wanted to include an expiration date, make it good for up to 90 days after the transition!

Sheesh, what idiots.

[rrozsa-2009]

Too many stupid Americans, PERIOD! How else could a nation elect Ronald Reagan and GW Bush to 2 terms in office?

Posted by ConDumbistan at 06:00 PM : Jan 08, 2009
-----------


There are a couple of you on here who blame Obama for this mess. You''''ll grab at anything if you think it will make Obama look bad. snip Give it a rest!

Posted by Element51 at 05:50 PM : Jan 08, 2009

===============

Element51 -- There are always political trolls on BOTH sides!

[kommoncents-2009]

I can''t believe that this is an issue Obama is spending time on right now. The economy is collapsing and he''s worried about whether people can figure out how to go from analog to digital. Unbelievable.

[debinok1]

People today just refuse to accept that they may be the poor of tomorrow. Most families do not have savings to back them up if they lose their jobs and cannot find a new one. This is what is coming very soon. Unemployment is already at 7.2% and that number only includes those who are actually receiving an unemployment check. It does not include those who have already exhausted those benefits and still have not found work.

[barbaram99]

concorde5, Thank ye. It is always the bloody rich..I would rather dine with the us poor than dine with the rich. I would walk away from that. I am appalled they baby the rich. America was built by the poor and slaves. Rick are slaves to their riches. I miss the days when ye could rent for under 200 a month.