In less than two years, on February 17, 2009, your local analog television station will sign off for the last time, forever, going entirely digital, and the frequencies on which they broadcast will be reassigned for government use. That means, unless you already have a digital television set, or purchase a converter box, your TV, whether it’s new or a family heirloom, is about to become a doorstop.
And the government is going to help you buy a converter box, whether you need help or not.
Under rules announced Monday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration will spend as much as $1.5 billion giving out coupons to any American who asks for them, in order to purchase digital converter boxes for analog television sets. Every household in the U.S. (PDF) can receive up to two $40 coupons, in the style of an electronic gift card, each of which will be good toward the purchase of a bare-bones digital converter box.
Qualifying boxes are expected to cost between $40 and $50.
“The transition from analog to digital television is a historic change and brings with it considerable benefits for the American consumer,” said Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez. “The coupon program is designed to help ease the transition to digital TV. Not only will the transition help expand consumer choices, but more importantly, the digital transition will enable more efficient use of the nation’s airwaves providing new advanced wireless services and increased public safety services for all Americans.”
Of course, since it’s the government, there are a few catches.
First, the giveaway runs in two phases. In the first phase, beginning Jan. 1, 2008, anybody in the country, no matter how rich or poor, can get two of these coupons. Once $990 million goes out the door in this phase, the giveaway then goes to the second phase. In this phase, anybody in the country, no matter how rich or poor, can get two coupons, if they say that they don’t have cable or satellite TV services. And once that $510 billion goes out the door, that’s it, no more digital converter giveaways.
Second, the converter boxes will be bare-bones by government fiat. (PDF) Manufacturers will be able to put few, if any, advanced features into boxes eligible for the coupons. For instance, converter boxes with component video outputs, picture-in-picture capability, or recording and playback capabilities, won’t be eligible for the government handouts. Conversely, boxes which fail to include a remote control or on-screen program guide won’t be eligible, either.
Third, retailers who sell the digital converter boxes (PDF) to you won’t be compensated for their costs in implementing the program, beyond the value of the coupons themselves. They will have to provide their own infrastructure for processing the electronic gift cards at their own cost. They’ll also have to train their employees using government training materials at their own expense and submit to government audits whenever the government feels it’s “commercially reasonable.”
Then there’s the issue of where the money is coming from and where it’s going. Even if this program miraculously had no overhead whatsoever, all the money allocated to it wouldn’t provide even 19 million coupons. There are far more analog TV sets than that. Plus, plenty of people will take advantage of the giveaway nature of this ill-advised program, even though they could easily afford to purchase the converter boxes without the coupons. Some might even find a way around the two coupons per household restriction. And quite a few retailers will find a way to cash out those coupons without having actually sold the converter boxes.
Finally, there’s hardly a poor person anywhere in the country who both owns a television and can’t scrape together $40 to buy a converter box sometime between now and 2009. This really is an unnecessary handout.
But the biggest waste, fraud and abuse here is the abuse of you, the average taxpayer. You are paying for a program that is guaranteed to waste money, that almost nobody actually needs, and is almost certainly going to grow far beyond its current limit. By the time it’s over, I suspect the average taxpayer would have contributed far more than $80 per household into the program, when you could have just kept the money, saved everyone all the trouble, and been better off.
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ig
Mar 12, 2007
I’ve got digital satellite TV. I’m going to blissfully assume that DirecTV is going to handle the downconversion for me. However, I intend to get at least a portion of my tax money back by ordering two of the freebie boxes anyway. Even if they’re useless, perhaps there are some parts inside that are worth saving. At the very least, they could be used as project boxes with power supplies already in them.
SteveA
Mar 13, 2007
Bush Tax Cuts Stage II.
Verbos
Mar 13, 2007
If these coupons are for $40 and business as usual applies for the government, the tax payers will be paying $400 or more. Do yourself and everyone else a favor. Go ahead and buy your own $400 converter and forget the coupon.
Michael Hampton
Mar 14, 2007
IG, you made one of my points for me. Thanks.
gRegor
Mar 14, 2007
I think there might be a typo, based on the initial 1.5 billion number:
“And once that $510 billion…”
should be:
“And once that $510 million…”
Eh?
Not that it changes the ridiculous nature of this subsidy.
Coffeeseven
Mar 15, 2007
As long as our government keeps us glued to the TV there won’t be any significant peasant revolt. It just won’t happen. Bread and circuses…….
Paul V
Mar 16, 2007
1. The nature of being poor is that you can barely scrape money together for anything. Much less an inconvenient disruption to a communication service that has existed for decades (closing in on 100 years). A service which someone people depend on for telling them things like, oh, a hurricane is coming.
2. It’s not taxpayers that are paying for this. It’s actually the corporations that end up paying for the use of the newly freed spectrum. This new income is estimated in the tens of billions.
Joeler
Mar 19, 2007
One thing I love is when the government takes away our TV and forces us to use their versions. It’s so funny, because, in my whole life I never even realized how much of an idiot I was when it came to choosing the right kind of TV. Thank you, BB, for this doubleplus good decision! Freedom is slavery!
For more on this, check out
X
Mar 21, 2007
you will not have to replace yoru tv if you have RCA type video inputs these do not use broadcast frequencies to deliver the signal, like the traditional screw on cable wire does, when you have to make sure your tv ois on channel 3 or 4 for the cable box to work. as long as you have video in, this is not a problem, if you don’t have it, the converters are cheap at radio shack, they are usually meant to hook up dvd players to old TVs, but they work just the same.
on the other hand this will enable your friendly cable company to see you though your tv or through cameras hidden in the boxes.
Nightowl
Apr 30, 2007
How about those lonely night watchmen and security guards that bring those little portable Tv’s to work with them. How about folks that have Tv’s in their cars, Vans or motor homes. What about the guys that can only get seats at sporting events a half mile from the action and have to see what happened on little hand held Tv’s. The list of people that depend on those Tv’s will be SOL I guess. And yes, I’m sure there are lots of folks out there that will have to deside whether or not to use the money to make up the difference for the cost of the converter or feed their family that night. I’m also sure that some people will take advantage of those coupons that don’t really need them leaving some people who need them without.
JoJo
May 29, 2007
“It’s not taxpayers that are paying for this. It’s actually the corporations that end up paying”
Who do you think ends up with the bill after big corporations pay? You, you, me and you.
Just Fred
Jun 17, 2007
The Consumers will end up paying for this change in the long run. No matter if the corporations pay. Because they will increase the price of their goods or services and put that increase on the consumer. And me being on disability I know how hard it is to have any extra money. The goverment politicians should try to live on $900.00 a month (Paying rent, gas, water and elec. Bills). Then pay your not covered medical bills, grocery and personal products bills. God forbid you try to own a car. Now you have to buy TV (Satalite or cable) to get a form a entertainment that has been free for almost 100 years. I bet on avrage a politician gets $100,000.00 or more a year and they give them self raises every year. The goverment should have made the TV makers stop making analog TVs, VCRs and DVD Recorders right after deciding to go digital, or they should have made a analog/digital tuner in the TV when they decided to change where you could have switched between the two. They should make the TV,VCR and DVD Recorder manufactures pay for the boxes on TVs, VCRs and DVD Recorders made after the law was passed and they knew the switch was in effect.
Bill T.
Sep 10, 2007
First, since we are being “given” these converters, is a manufacturer being subsidized to make them? Then, are those available from Radio Shack equivalent to the upcoming models? Will these converters amplify the signal that comes from the antenna? Rather than buying more than one converter, why not have the maker put two or more ouput jacks on the back of the converter? Also, will these converters have an output for an AM/FM receiver, or is that workable? A number of users may want this feature for external speakers.
Tronman
Oct 24, 2007
I would think that Satellite and cable signals would be exempt from all this, since they already use a converter box. The signal they send is digital and the boxes that receive it already convert it to analog. So joe consumer is fat, dumb and happy with his analog tv. Nothing needs to be done for him.
It is only the consumer that must receive their signal “off air” that will need the converter box and subsequent coupons.
Jean
Oct 25, 2007
This is for just Fred I know what you mean I live off disability but I only get 643.00 a month my bills are 611.08 a month. That doesn’t inclue bath soap washing powder or anything else that is taxable. Now exactly where am I suppose to get the money for a converter box. Like I said on anough blog the rich get richer and the poor get screwed. Thanks Jean
g_man
Nov 26, 2007
I think its hilarious that the gov’t regulates how we watch tv. i feel that if we have to get these “FREE” converters, which we will end up paying for anyway, we shouldnt be regulated in WHAT we watch on our new DIGITAL tv’s. the whole thing is funny
dodo
Dec 09, 2007
Look the law sez they have to spend less that 100 million
to administer a 990 million program. Ten percent to
administer a program, sounds pricy
Michael Hampton
Dec 09, 2007
For a government program, that’s dirt cheap.
Bull Frog
Jan 01, 2008
wow!! what a fantastic lobbying effort by european electronics manufacturers!! what a coup! i wonder what the next movement will be toward the roboticism of the populace.
JC
Jan 01, 2008
I think is stupid to pay for a converter box for a new feature that I might not want. For example, if you remember when color TVs were new on the market; it was a choice for the customer to change from black and white screen to color.
Why do we have to pay, not matter how much the price, certain amount of money just because a new change on the future?
Michael Jones
Jan 02, 2008
The least you could do, given the nasty nature of your comments, is to publish the phone numbers &/or websites at which one can order these ‘barebones’ converters…for anyone who isn’t interested enough in the technology to upgrade to a modern, flat-screen, digital TV, these converters are more than adequate.
Quit your bitching and be useful.
Michael Hampton
Jan 03, 2008
At the time this article was written, they were not yet available. Thanks to the wonderful efficiency and effectiveness of government, they are still not yet available. And there’s only a year left before they shut your TV off.
“Bitching”? “Be useful”? You obviously haven’t been around long enough. I don’t bitch, and everything here is useful.
Michael Jones
Jan 03, 2008
I don’t know what rock you live under, but all the information is available on KNBC.com…THAT’S useful…
Shows what YOU know…AND how long you’ve “been around”
Nightowl
Jan 21, 2008
I went to the site to apply for the coupons back on January 1st. After I filled in all the information and hit send, about three or four seconds later I got a message back saying that I was not eligible and if I wanted I could file an appeal. In the box provided, I wrote a short message as to why I felt that I was eligible. It said that they would email me back. I got a email from them on January 4th saying quote:
We received your TV Converter Box Coupon Program application and appeal. Your appeal is under
review. We will respond with a decision on your appeal in approximately 5 business days.
Consumer Support Center
TV Converter Box Coupon Program
It is now January 21st and have not gotten an answer from them yet. Is this a bogus site or is the whole program bogus ? I can understand that it must be a huge undertaking having to respond to all the emails and phone calls that must be coming in. They knew approximately how many people in the country still watch over the air TV and should have been adequately staffed to handle all the emails and phone calls. They must have realized that most people would apply as early as possible when they read that the coupons would be given out untill they were all gone. Following up on my previous post about portable TV’s being useless after Feb.2009, what are people going to do in emergencys like storms and such when all they have to rely on for information is those small battery operated TV’s. Will they allocate a station on the old frequencys for that or these folks just screwed.
Nightowl
Feb 10, 2008
It’s 2/10/08 and still haven’t heard anything from them. I gave up on them horsing me around with those coupons and went out and bought a Digital Ready TV. I did see that Wally World has them in their stores now for $50.
nicole87
May 13, 2010
so basically we will be spied on oh man say it aint so say it aint so i love my regular frequency i dont need dtv