senate tries delaying digital transition to television yet again

[Aramazd]

Ixnay on the egulationray.

How would you decide who gets to broadcast on a certain frequency?

 

[fishjie]

Okay guys, stop trying to convince to fishjie. He's not going to understand.

are you arguing that if i were a proponent of free markets i shouldn't agree with government mandate of such a switch? but the thing is i'm violently opposed to free markets. look at what damage the unregulated credit default swaps caused. government should do its job and regulate stuff. such as switching from obsolete analog to digital.

They can't afford it.

its a matter of priorities. if they badly wanted tv, they would go ahead and get a converter. besides, americans don't understand what "can't afford it" means. these are the same people that rang up tons of debt on their credit cards and taking out home equity loans. and i highly doubt these same lazy greedy Americans finally learned how to be financially responsible. they'll find a way if they badly want it enough. kind of like how they found a way to buy fancy homes with their minimum wage jobs.

 

[Bill3000]

There were vouchers for free conversion boxes, stupid people just waited until they expired before getting off their asses and trying to use them. They waited YEARS.

And yes, the airwaves are that crowded.

We can wait four months to offer a bit more time. And we're dealing with old people here, they're not the best with technology.

 

[Cutlass]

are you arguing that if i were a proponent of free markets i shouldn't agree with government mandate of such a switch? but the thing is i'm violently opposed to free markets. look at what damage the unregulated credit default swaps caused. government should do its job and regulate stuff. such as switching from obsolete analog to digital.



its a matter of priorities. if they badly wanted tv, they would go ahead and get a converter. besides, americans don't understand what "can't afford it" means. these are the same people that rang up tons of debt on their credit cards and taking out home equity loans. and i highly doubt these same lazy greedy Americans finally learned how to be financially responsible. they'll find a way if they badly want it enough. kind of like how they found a way to buy fancy homes with their minimum wage jobs.

You do realize that the people we are talking about are the in the poorest 1% of households, right? People too poor to afford cable tv and have not bought a new tv in at least 5 years. Retired people on low fixed incomes largely.

 

[Rashiminos]

How would you decide who gets to broadcast on a certain frequency?

Apparently we're not on the same frequency in regards to seriousness.

:Joker:

are you arguing that if i were a proponent of free markets i shouldn't agree with government mandate of such a switch?

Quite possibly, but I stand corrected.

its a matter of priorities. if they badly wanted tv, they would go ahead and get a converter. besides, americans don't understand what "can't afford it" means. these are the same people that rang up tons of debt on their credit cards and taking out home equity loans. and i highly doubt these same lazy greedy Americans finally learned how to be financially responsible. they'll find a way if they badly want it enough. kind of like how they found a way to buy fancy homes with their minimum wage jobs.

Grossly bad generalizations are lame.

 

[fishjie]

You do realize that the people we are talking about are the in the poorest 1% of households, right? People too poor to afford cable tv and have not bought a new tv in at least 5 years. Retired people on low fixed incomes largely.

Its not like this switch was just sprung upon them out of the blue. They've had a long time to prepare for it. If we delay for them now, we'll delay for them forever. Some would say who cares?

The reason I want the switch to happen is because with all these frequencies freed up, we can finally start to see some cool stuff, like national wifi. We are probably still the #1 country in technological innovation, but our infrastructure is awful. This switch will be a big win for us in the long run. People are too focused on the short term.

 

[Aramazd]

We can wait four months to offer a bit more time. And we're dealing with old people here, they're not the best with technology.

IIRC, old people are actually the most prepared. If you want a link I'll look for one.

You do realize that the people we are talking about are the in the poorest 1% of households, right? People too poor to afford cable tv and have not bought a new tv in at least 5 years. Retired people on low fixed incomes largely.

The biggest problem is the program wasn't properly funded. If it was we wouldn't be stuck with people who can't get a coupon. Also, they should have limited to 1 coupon instead of 2.

Apparently we're not on the same frequency in regards to seriousness.

:Joker:

You're an ass.

Its not like this switch was just sprung upon them out of the blue. They've had a long time to prepare for it. If we delay for them now, we'll delay for them forever. Some would say who cares?

Well, given that all TV sets sold after 2004 have to have ATSC tuners, it won't be forever.

 

[Rashiminos]

You're an ass.

Buy a sense of humor please.

 

[fishjie]

Well, given that all TV sets sold after 2004 have to have ATSC tuners, it won't be forever.

apparently these people are too poor to afford a new converter, let alone a new TV.

 

[Enkidu Warrior]

ooh ooh look at me I'm so cool trendy and edgy for calling old and poor people worthless and being so hard cold and careless ooh ooh

Hey, I got an even better idea! Let's liquidate old people for their bones and marrow to insulate our housing.

Making internet tough guys look ridiculous should be a sport.

 

[fishjie]

Making internet tough guys look ridiculous should be a sport.

its just too bad all they do is validate how hard and thug i am.

 

[.Shane.]

It's not even a few years. The delay is for four months. Seriously, is it worth it that much to be whining over?

The real question is, is 4 months worth wasting all this legislative time and energy over?

No, not by a long shot. I think this attempt to delay this is absolutely stupid.

 

[amadeus]

The real question is, is 4 months worth wasting all this legislative time and energy over?

And it's already been delayed by how many years?

 

[bhsup]

And it's already been delayed by how many years?

PRecisely. We've known this has been coming for a long time. It was supposed to be implemented early this decade.

Wonder if this has anything to do with it.

the lobbying firm that John Podesta and his brother helped found has received $2.36 million from the National Association of Broadcasters over the last decade. During the last two years, the Podesta Group has been the top lobbying firm of the National Association of Broadcasters.

Podesta, of course, being in charge of Obama's transition team.

 

[ori]

What, ahead in digital tv? No your not. This is the US going to digital only. Only a few countries in Europe are digital only and they are all small, and none of the major countries are digital only.

except for minor regions which go digital only early this year (and right now only have one public broadcasting service still analog) Germany has finished its transition in 2008...

the purpose of the delay is to pander to the poor and stupid constituents who are whining. now i do think its unfair the coupons ran out, SO, i think its only fair that we bailout the converter coupon program. so instead of a delay, they should just throw some more money at the problem.

well that is part of the stimulus bill passed by the House... Though that will not go into force prior to the final date of the switch most likely...

PRecisely. We've known this has been coming for a long time. It was supposed to be implemented early this decade.

Wonder if this has anything to do with it.

Podesta, of course, being in charge of Obama's transition team.

Well seeing that the National Association of Broadcasters is against delaying it - I am not sure what you are trying to get at
Edit: here it is:

The National Association of Broadcasters is still hoping for the Feb. 17 date. Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton issued a statement saying "broadcasters nationwide are committed to being ready by February 17 and strongly support a solution that would enable the government to continue making converter box coupons available to consumers who rely on free television."

I don't believe that Podesta really influenced this on behalf of his former employer... There are other instances where one can suspect lobbying efforts to pay off though...
Edit2: googleing further: this association seems to change its position every couple of days currently - so just scratch that argument about Podesta

 

[Patroklos]

And the issue is still to find a working course of action, without potentially risking setting yourself up for worse later.

1%? Sounds like the vouchers did their job then, time to switch. And no, the great majority of the people not ready to switch are those who let their vouchers expire.

The biggest problem is the program wasn't properly funded. If it was we wouldn't be stuck with people who can't get a coupon. Also, they should have limited to 1 coupon instead of 2.

Again, they never ran out of coupons, the problem is people didn't get them of their own free will or they let them expire.

 

[ori]

Again, they never ran out of coupons, the problem is people didn't get them of their own free will or they let them expire.

WASHINGTON—The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today announced that starting Sunday, January 4, consumers requesting coupons from the agency’s TV Converter Box Coupon Program will be placed on a waiting list and coupons will be mailed on a first-come-first-served basis, as funds from expired coupons become available. Because of the high demand for coupons, the program reached its $1.34 billion ceiling, which consists of ordered and redeemed coupons.

they sure ran out of money for the coupons - now there may be enough expiring for this to not matter - but most likely they'll need some more money

 

[potatokiosk]

People have been talking about this for years. If, over the course of several years, you can't save up $50 to buy something then there is something wrong with you.

They should just pick a deadline and stick with it. Yeah, you could say that a few months isn't very long and we should give people more time, but people will only be saying the same things again when the new deadline draws near and not very many people will have bothered to get the black box. Let's face it, some people just don't plan ahead and they won't care about this until their TV stops working.

I don't even understand why broadcasters are lobbying against this because the people left behind are obviously too poor to buy anything. Then again maybe they can afford it but think they can't because of all the useless junk they think they need because of advertisements.

TV isn't necessary to live and if it's not worth $50 to you then it doesn't even make a very big contribution to quality of life so I really don't care if 20 million people wake up one morning and discover their TV doesn't work.

Just make the switch already. Instead of pushing the deadline forward I think we should switch tomorrow.

 

[emzie]

I'm always surprised at how many people don't have cable / satellite.

 

[Zelig]

I'm always surprised at how many people don't have cable / satellite.

I'm surprised at how many people have cable or satellite, it's horrible value for what you get out of it.