Limits proposed on digital TV converter coupons

Washington Post ^ | Monday, July 24, 2006; 4:34 PM | Jeremy Pelofsky

[VRWCtaz]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An estimated 21 million U.S. households, those that rely solely on over-the-air television broadcasts, would be eligible to get coupons to buy digital converter boxes, according to a Commerce Department agency proposal released on Monday.

Coupons would not be offered to a majority of U.S. households because they already have an alternative. The Government Accountability Office estimates about 85 million households watch television using cable or satellite services.

[RicocheT]

OK, tell me the date I need to drop my subscription to cable TV in order to get my two $40 coupons. I'm sure these will have cash value like WIC coupons do. I will sell them.

I'll wait about 45 days and then my cable co. will lure me back with a lower rate for the next year. It's nice to be a leach.

[Mark was here]

No, the Idiots at the US Commerce Department are suggesting - the Idiots in Congress are just authorizing 1.5B for it.

When the government auctions off the spectrum the television stations used to broadcast on the money will be raised. Who ever buys the spectrum will have to include the price of the spectrum in the service they sell. They will be the hidden tax collector. The people buying the new services will be paying for the converters. They just wont know it.

[dalereed]

They ought to be free to everyone that could care less about HDTV.

[Diamond]

I need a new refrigerator coupon.

Cordially,

[untrained skeptic]

"This is really, really stupid."

Congress and Bush signed off on it.

Hardly the first time that congress and the president signed off on something really, really stupid, especially when it gets stuck in a large spending bill.

This particular stupidity was passed as section 159 of the " Deficit Reduction Act of 2005".

[ChildOfThe60s]

Consumers have been reluctant to buy the new sets because many still cost more than $1,000.

Duh. When they made the stoopid rule they should have passed a law requiring all new digital sets to cost $200. That is the way economics works, isn't it? In D.C that is...

[untrained skeptic]

Actually, I found the legislation authorizing it. It's ironically enough part of the "Deficit Reduction Act of 2005".

You can find it by searching on the name of the bill at thomas.loc.gov. Look at section 159.

It allocates $990 million for the vouchers and up to $160 million to administer the program.

It also specifies the $40 value of each voucher and a maximum of two vouchers per household.

[nascarnation]

Dear Wash DC:

how bout a new Corvette coupon too.......and maybe a free lunch at Ruths Chris........thanks :-)

[VRWCtaz]

Thanks for the added info. Ironic doesn't begin to describe having this as part of something titled the "Deficit Reduction Act of 2005".

[VRWCtaz]

I see larceny in your heart - mathematically challenged larceny - but larceny all the same.

[VRWCtaz]

I'll bet Congress Critters call you for economic advice, don't they?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Your points are true if simple Supply & Demand were at work. What you are forgetting are the Price Controls on the Consumer Electronics manufacturers followed by the Congressional hearings on price gouging and a new Windfall Profits Tax. C'mon, use your noodle!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"Shear Foolishness!"

No, scissors won't work. You really have to have the converter.

LOL at my desk. Snort. Welcome to the Spelling, Homonym and Grammar Enforcers Club!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Refrigerator Coupons? I guess you haven't shopped for a reefer lately. The utilities around the country provide many of them and they are a lot more generous than these measley Converter Coupons. Buy a new reefer and you get a fat subsidy check courtesy of all the other utility customers ("ratepayers"). The idea is new reefers are more efficient so the utility won't have to build any new powerplants -- commonly called "Negawatts".

[dennisw]

I can go out and buy a new, low end DVD player for $40......

$17 down here. Brand name is Coby

[-YYZ-]

So what's so wrong about providing these converters for off-the-air television viewers? The gov't has decided to sell off the freqs currently used for analog television transmissions, rendering all the pre-digital sets (and VCRs, etc) out there useless. Should everyone have to get cable or digital sattelite, or a buy a new television with a built-in digital tuner? I mean, this doesn't really affect me, since I have cable and have already made the move to HDTV (will these boxes receive HDTV channels and down-rez them to SDTV resolution, also?), but why should the current off-the-air TV viewers have to pay the costs of this change?

[DManA]

Circus and bread coupons - now there's a fresh idea.

[VRWCtaz]

"I mean, this doesn't really affect me, since I have cable and have already made the move to HDTV...

So you don't pay taxes?

[-YYZ-]

I'm in Canada. I suspect we will see the same change-over here, eventually, but I'm not aware of it being planned at this point.

But still, why should people who have perfectly functional sets now have to suck up the costs imposed by a change made by the gov't to free up those freqs to be sold off?

[Nowhere Man]

So what's so wrong about providing these converters for off-the-air television viewers? The gov't has decided to sell off the freqs currently used for analog television transmissions, rendering all the pre-digital sets (and VCRs, etc) out there useless. Should everyone have to get cable or digital sattelite, or a buy a new television with a built-in digital tuner? I mean, this doesn't really affect me, since I have cable and have already made the move to HDTV (will these boxes receive HDTV channels and down-rez them to SDTV resolution, also?), but why should the current off-the-air TV viewers have to pay the costs of this change?

I see nothing wrong with it since the FCC is forcing us to go to HDTV, which I think is being forced on us by the monied interests. Personally, I think we should have just allocated UHF channels 70 thru 83 for HDTV signals, heck, the old AMPS cellphone standard is there now but that is being hased out next year. If 70 thru 83 ain't enough, how about 60 thru 83 instead? The rest of the UHF channels and VHF channels can be reserved for analogue NTSC TV that we have now and then lets see if HDTV takes off or not. Even in 1946 when things were looking like that we would have adopted the 405 line, 144 pictures a second Peter Goldmark CBS color TV system, it was proposed that the regular, then only black and white, 525 line NTSC system would continue on the VHF channels while the CBS system would be UHF only.

Why force everyone to get a convertor box or an HDTV, I'm still watching the same TV (1982 Zenith) I did when I was a sophomore in high school and I just turned 40. My grandmother watched her 1962 RCA B&W TV (no UHF tuner either) up until she died in 1997, if she was still around, I would hate to be around when that day came to where she "couldn't watch her stories anymore." I wonder how this program is going to work, I have a small collection of TV's myself ranging from 1966 to 1998. B-P I plan to get my 1970 Zenith color TV going too.



Gimmie a "roundie" color TV any day. B-)