It is my prediction that the switchover to over-the-air digital television will be a huge non-issue. Most people commenting on this do not seem to understand that this only affects people getting their television programming from an antenna. It does not affect cable or satellite in any way, unlike what Comcast would have you believe. Sure, the public knowledge of the switchover is currently low, but that doesn't mean anything. The majority of people aren't going to be affected by it in the first place. Why should they have to know about it?

The expectations of that poll are bogus. The number we should be looking for is a percentage that matches the estimated number of people still on antennas. Any more than that is a bonus. Of course, those numbers matching doesn't necessarily mean that the entirety of people on antennas know of the switchover. However, that is a reasonable expectation for the poll. The current expectation that everyone, whether affected or not, should have a deep understanding of the digital rapture is absurd.

The government is spending a lot of time and money trying to educate people when they should be putting the onus on the television stations. Per FCC licensing, roughly, stations are required to meet the needs of the public. This means that the FCC can require them to run public service announcements. How about, instead of using my tax dollars to run an ad campaign, they just force television stations to run a very small number of PSA's concerning the switch to digital over a very long period of time?

In fact, they may already be doing this. It is in their best interest to do so. None of those over-the-air stations would want to be left out in the cold. By the time the switch rolls around, the market dictates that we will be inundated with notices that we should buy a digital converter box to continue receiving television from our antennas. Don't worry. Your grandma is going to know about the conversion. Even if she doesn't, you will. You can help her.

Yes, this most certainly will be another Y2K. It will be exactly like that. There will be no disaster.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (11)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

Comment
Name
Email
Write the displayed characters
	Add Comment