Verizon CEO joins AT&T in backing digital TV delay -- as long as it's short
By Richard Lawler 
posted Jan 19th 2009 6:32PM
posted Jan 19th 2009 6:32PM
posted Jan 19th 2009 6:32PM
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Its clear that this whole thing is just a crock and a scam.. Its a political act and its just going to keep getting pushed back and back. Obama just wants his name in the paper which is why he is supporting a delay.
Yes I'm sure he doesn't have enough publicity to satisfy his appetite for the limelight just yet.
The transition has already been delayed before. Now people are REALLY going to be confused. "I thought my TV would stop working on February 17th, but it's working fine. I guess I don't need one of those converter boxes after all."
The only way I can see this getting successfully executed is if, only on analog channels, they display a "get a converter box" messages every 5 minutes over the TV show.
@Aaron:
For god sakes, they beep that message in when I'm watching HD television programming. If they can't keep that message off of HDTV programming, they certainly don't have the technology to isolate the message in Analog feeds :P
@ Aaron
people are going to be confused by this whole thing regardless. i consider myself an "in the know" person as far as tech stuff goes, so i got my vouchers and converters months ago, but people still ask me all the time if they need them or not, or what they need them for. it doesn't seem that hard to me (if you don't have cable and want to watch local channels, you need a converter) but im sure there will be some people who will have absolutely no idea what is happening when their TV stops working whenever they flip the switch. it's inevitable.
keep the february date. also, yay for the 50" panasonic plasma pic!
Shut it off and deal with it. I agree with Aaron, this is a way to make an ever bigger mess. They ran out of money for coupons. So get more f****** mone then. Don't take up 4 months SPENDING MONEY ON DEBATING ON HOW TO GET MORE MONEY! How ridiculous is that?
And at SoCool, you are wrong about who needs a converter. Without making these comments a debate about who does and who doesn't need a converter, suffice it to say that even though you are wrong, your message should be the message people receive. "If you don't have cable or sat service, get a coupon. After the cutoff date if your tv stops working, go get a converter box."
Who would have thought the vast majority of people receiving OTA analog programming were complete idiots, living in caves? I mean... how else could they have missed all the advertising? This is a complete waste. If the TV "goes out", the first thing these poor idiots are going to do is buy something to fix it. Coupon or not. There's nothing these people love more than TeeVee. -- Written by someone who solely relies on OTA (HD) broadcast for programming.