The Converter Box Revisited

I have waited long enough to go into my rant about the change in date on the converter box. The government did have good reasons for the delay. Unfortunately, most of the reasons were caused by the government. The people in charge did know how many people would probably need converter coupons. They put that artificial 90 day limit on the coupons to rush people to action. Unfortunately, they did not consider that the manufacturers of the new equipment did not know what they were doing and had to reinvent the equipment to allow for the fact that people would need to watch both analog and digital television on the same "ancient" piece of equipment. Then they decided that a delay from February to June would solve the problems. That meant more expense for broadcasters. That also meant more confusion. Now stations are going to change as if by random chance during this period. Also the fact that those selling the converters seem to have decided that they only needed to have them available before the first deadline and the boxes are now in very short supply while people with the coupons have expiration dates that they need to consider. It all seems to indicate that people do not seem to talk to each other. One major retailer told me that there will be no market for converter boxes after June 14. Of course that is based on the flawed concept that everyone who needs a box will do so ahead of the deadline.

REMEMBER that all television stations are now broadcasting in digital, along with the analog so that if you need a box, get in as soon as you can to start getting all of the additional programing that should already be in place.

Probably more after I get to talk to some commercial broadcasters at the National Association Of Broadcasters convention next week - if any can afford to travel to the show.