The Senate voted on Monday to delay next month’s transition to digital television until June 12 because some viewers would not be ready for the switch.
The voice vote followed a call by President Obama’s administration to postpone the Feb. 17 date for major TV stations to stop sending traditional analog signals. Similar legislation awaits action in the House on Tuesday. ...
A federal program to subsidize digital equipment that some viewers will need has fallen short of money, and last week the government reported a waiting list of 1.4 million households.
More than 6.5 million homes are not able to receive digital TV programming, the Nielsen Company said last week. The figure is a decrease from last month, when Nielsen said almost 8 million could not receive it.
So, the beneficent federal government is worried that some folks won't be able to watch TV if the switch goes through as planned. Well, these laggards have diddled around for two years, what makes you think they'll get on the ball and get their converters now?
If you want to motivate these people to get what they need to switch to digital the solution is pretty simple. After the February target date go ahead and leave the analog transmitters on, except for the last five minutes of every half hour. The laggards who still don't have digital converters will quickly become frustrated when they won't be able to see who was the father of the baby, who won the game show, or what that day's soap opera cliffhanger was. They'll miss the lottery numbers, the ads from their favorite work comp and personal injury lawyers, and their opportunity for a free psychic reading.
They'll get those converters before the end of the day, even if they have to pay for them themselves.
Carrot and stick. Just that simple.
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