Yeah this is really stupid... to delay it only gives those that are putting it off more time to put it off some more. If you make the switch people have to get off their butts and make the change. Those that won't get the signals when it switches over from location won't really make a difference and this is what those trying to delay it are bringing up. The mountains around here are just really too rolling and high to almost pick up analog signals let alone digital. I'm 50miles from the nearest digital tower output and I have a hell of a time getting a signal cause of the mountains but I've got Dish Network so doesn't matter to me.
The federal program that hands out the digital converter boxes ran out of money.. how are they supposed to make the switch when they can't?
If my 70 year old Grandmother who lives in a town of 500 in the foothills of Cali can figure out to get DirectTV so they do not have to mess with it, anyone can do it.
If you can't spend 40 bucks on a freaking converter, you don't deserve or use a TV. Absurd sum of tax money to spend just so people can watch TV.
That's great. People exist in this country, about ~6.5M left, that have never payed for a TV service. These people have the option of signing up for a coupon, to get a free TV converter box and continue paying nothing for their TV service. The government program that hands out these coupons no longer has the money to hand them out. Thus 6.5M people (funfact: 21% of Minnesota still use analog) will be left without TV. Do I think it should be delayed this long? No. Do I think it should be delayed at all? I think the numbers are over inflated and most of these people are either A. Confused by the switch, B. Already have a newer TV with a built in digital decoder, C. Don't even care. But to say that it's entirely due to the lazyness of these people is incorrect. I would assume that the majority want their TV service to remain free.
So thats 2% of the US population... I think our civilization would collapse if those people didnt have TV. I mean seriously this is ridiculous, how long have we KNOWN that the switch was coming, yet people still havent gotten a converter? Those people deserve to be without tv until they get their converter box.
Radio Shack here had $40 off coupons in their sales ad a couple weeks ago. But, they started announcing this 2 years ago....that's plenty of time for everyone to prepare...make the switch, screw those that put it off for 2 years.
Two years ago? More like 15 years ago when it was first decided upon by Congress and has been mentioned in the Congressional record more times than I can recall since then. But, yeah, the gigantic ad campaigns I guess started about then. All said and done, television is a privilege not a right. Handing out millions of those little converter boxes adds to an already hyper-inflated federal budget. God forbid people might have to read books or listen to radio... Or just go outside.
The coupons have been available for 2years now. I ordered two for grand parents and had them here in less than 2 weeks way back when it first started. To wait now is a waste of resources stations have already put into the change to happen next month vs 5 months from now. If your not ready by now it was your choice not the Governments fault.