DTV Switch Still Happening for Some Today
Well, today was supposed to be the big deadline for the national switch to digital television. While that date got pushed back to June 12, as of midnight tonight, 641 stations in the U.S. (36 percent of the country) will have shut off their analog broadcast signal.
The places where many or all of the major networks in that area are going digital include San Diego and Santa Barbara, Calif.; Rockford, Ill.; Scranton, Pa.; and Burlington, Vt.
Today’s mini-switch will be a bellwether for the larger transition in June. According to Nielsen, as of Feb. 1, 5.1 percent of U.S. homes (5.8 million) weren’t ready for the DTV switch (though the National Association of Broadcasters disputes this figure as too high). The FCC’s DTV call center (1-888-CALL-FCC), along with some industry partners, has 4,300 operators standing by to offer assistance.
The delay till June will also give those on the wait-list for DTV converter box coupons a chance to receive and redeem them. The coupon program had run out of money, but the recent stimulus package that President Obama is expected to sign today has $640 million in additional funding.
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[...] Million Homes Not Ready for DTV; despite 641 stations going digital as of yesterday, 4.4 percent of the country was unprepared for the switch. [...]
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[...] in the midst of the national digital television switch, an apparent source of inspiration for conspiracy theorists, who are coming out with warnings that [...]
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[...] 641 TV stations kept the original switch date back in February and there’s been a test since then and the [...]
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wait for me, I’m not ready yet
Chris, We did a quick poll within our TVLoop apps on Facebook to see what users think…or if they think…about the switch to DTV. Here are the results:
45.6% say the date should not have been moved
26.5% say there shouldn’t be a transition at all
12.5% say Congress was right to move the date
15.4% say “What transition?”
We obviously have a very different demographic within our Facebook community, but the results are interesting nonetheless. In retrospect I would love to go back and find out why almost 27% are against the mandate in general. Anyway, thought this was good fodder for your post. The complete post is over at the TVLoop blog: http://blog.tvloop.com/2009/02/the-tvloop-community-weighs-in-on-digital-tv-transition/.
@Bryan,
Thanks for the info, that’s great. That 27 percent is strange.
I’ve gone back and forth about the switch date myself. It’s easy for me to say the date should have been kept — but I live in the Bay Area and can afford not to worry. Others aren’t in the same situation.
Those 27% are probably resistant to any change, whether it be from analog to digital TV, or a different brand of shampoo. We need to let go of the old and embrace the new technology!