[LINK] US digital tv switch going ahead -- sort of

[Scott Howard]

On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 2:37 PM, Jan Whitaker <jwhit at janwhitaker.com> wrote:

> [I'm posting these in hopes that someone on Link
> may be advising govt on what is happening there
> so we don't go through similar confusion. There
> was another story this week that despite the
> running out of the subsidisation coupons/budget,
> there probably weren't enough stbs anyway]


The subsidy coupons have only partially run out.  They all have a 90 day
expiry, and as any unused ones expire they are re-issued to the next person
in line.  I applied for one about 3-4 weeks ago, and got it last Friday,
which implies that anyone that applied for one within the past month
(possibly less) has definitely received one.

Obviously STB (or "Digital to Analog converter boxes" as they are called
here!) stocking levels will vary between regions, but in San Francisco
whilst there's certainly less of them on the shelves than there were a month
or two back, there's definitely no shortage (yet?).  Ditto for the online
retailers, some of who are even selling them for $40 including shipping,
which comes out to free after the $40 coupon, compared to most physical
shops who are in the $45-60 before coupon range.

However the US is a poor comparison to Australia - only 17.7% of houses in
the US have only free-to-air TVs, and that's including those that have TVs
with built-in digital decoders.  I'm sure there's higher percentage with at
least one FTA TV, but it's still not going to be anywhere as high as in the
US.

IMHO delaying the cut-over will buy very little.  Given the amount of
blanket advertising/warning/DTV "tests"/etc that have been going on there's
no excuse for anyone not to have taken action by now.

Hawaii has already switched over to 100% digital and had minimal issues as a
result.

  Scott