Interesting People mailing list archives
The Digital TV Fiasco
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 14:44:19 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com> Date: June 9, 2005 2:41:29 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: lauren () vortex com Subject: The Digital TV Fiasco Dave, A really remarkable aspect of the FCC's continuing push to obsolete existing consumer televisions is how oblivious most people are to the entire process, particularly those persons who still depend on broadcast signals for all of their television viewing. Yet even folks who mainly use cable or satellite, and the lucky ones who have one nice new television in the livingroom, are likely to have any number of older, smaller sets in other rooms, often not hooked up to those services and only receiving off-air programming. It will be interesting to see the voters' reactions when all of those analog sets, which have been working just fine, go dark. Presumably most people aren't going to be willing to shell out money for set-top conversion boxes so that they can watch digital versions of "Gilligan's Island" reruns from their local stations. While a long-term transition to digital television was obviously in the technological cards, the way that Congress and the FCC has handled this situation has been an exceptionally shameful big-money and politics-driven fiasco, even by the usual Washington standards. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () eepi org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, EEPI - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com - - -
Begin forwarded message: From: Randall <rvh40 () insightbb com> Date: June 9, 2005 1:52:08 PM EDT To: Dave <dave () farber net> Subject: FCC moves up Digital Deadline http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050609/D8AK50QG0.html FCC Speeds Up Digital TV Signal Deadlines Email this Story Jun 9, 10:21 AM (ET) By DAVID PACEWASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators on Thursday moved up the deadlines for manufacturers to make popular, mid-sized television sets capable ofreceiving digital signals.
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- The Digital TV Fiasco David Farber (Jun 09)