The DTV Extension Should Not Pass

The House of Representatives are trying to push a bill, 111th Congress H.R. 681, to extend the digital transition date from February 17, 2009 to June 12, 2009.  Instead of requiring analog signals to stop, they can continue to broadcast until June.

I do not support the main point of this bill, although I do support pieces of it.

First off, Americans have known about this transition date for at least a year.  Is that not enough time to get things together?  There are people now who are scrambling to get coupons for converter boxes but can't because they're either out of coupons or out of boxes.

Forcing broadcasts to be in digital format will free the airwaves; more channels and streams can be fit into less space, therefore taking up less of the airwaves.

More channels will be available to consumers.   Imagine how many channels are available on digital cable, then imagine getting those for free.  With more channel choices available to consumers, more content will be available for a broader group of people.  This also opens up the door to having more channels similar to OnDemand, where you're interacting with your television to pick shows and subscribe to episodes, even record shows to watch later.

With more interactive televisions and more channels, advertisers will have (some) access to consumers favorite shows and trends.  This means better targeted advertisements and better returns on advertisement investments.

Freeing up the airwaves will give room to more wireless technology.  Imagine having free wireless internet provided to your entire city.  This technology is already in place in some areas, but with the transition to digital there will be more room to broadcast and expand.  Rural and poor areas will finally have fast, free internet access.  With todays society moving things like newspapers and commerse online, it's important to extend internet access to as many people as possible.

I do see the other side.  For those consumers who have analog televisions (the ones who don't use cable, but antennas) they will lose their tv signal unless they get a Digital to Analog converter.  These converters are pretty expensive.  The government was offering coupons to help make it less expensive.  But their budget on the coupons has run dry and a lot of them have expired already, making them usless.  The message that "hey you're going to lose your TV signal" was not really pushed hard until the start of this year.  Some consumers still haven't received their boxes because they waited to get a coupon and now they're too late.

However, I think people have had enough time (as I said earlier) this has been in place for over a year.  All of the benefits to moving over to digital should not be postponed because some people didn't choose to take the responsibility to get their boxes and coupons earlier.  It's like waiting until 11:00 PM Sunday night to start a school project due on Monday morning.

I think that the date should not be moved.  The transition date has been burned into our memory, and there was a lot of planning around this date for both consumers and broadcasters.  I do, however, think that the expiration date for the coupons should be extended.  Because of the shortage and everything with them, consumers should still have a chance to get their coupons.  But let's not delay the innovation for the rest of us.

If you have an opinon on this issue, write your representatives.