Pulling The Plug On The Digital Deadline

One of the most pressing issues the newly-inaugurated President Barack Obama will face in his first few days in office does not involve war or fixing a broken economy, but it does affect the lives of millions of Americans. How Obama handles this potential crisis could help determine how people perceive his administration.

We're speaking, of course, about the switch to digital television. By February 17, most over-the-air TV stations must switch their signals from analog to digital. If you have a new TV, cable or satellite service, you're covered. If you don't, you need a converter box and an antenna to put on the TV you already have.

The government and broadcast media outlets (cable too) have been running ads promoting the switch for nearly two years, so you'd think people would have gotten the message by now. You'd be wrong.

• Those $40 coupons which are good toward the purchase of converter boxes? The agency responsible for that says it's running out of money, leaving those who have yet to apply for the coupons (or even if they already have) in the dark come February.
• Government has done a poor job of explaining to people what digital TV is, and why they have to have this cumbersome converter box strapped to their TVs. Oh, and you need an antenna, too.
• For some people who can't afford much because of the recession, let alone cable or satellite, converter boxes might be the biggest purchase they'll make all year. And we're not just talking about the elderly and shut-ins.

One of the advantages of the digital switch the TV industry likes to talk up is that you'll be getting more broadcast channels than ever. We looked into it, hooking up two TVs--a 13-inch color set and a 5-inch black and white--with converter boxes. The picture is much better, though it does tend to break up at times. On the color TV, every station was represented except for Channel 17, the PBS station. On the black-and-white, two public and two commercial stations are missing. As for those extra channels, we saw two that don't simulcast programming that's on the main channel in separate formats. One rebroadcast local news and the other was a weather channel. And we live in the Twin Cities market. So depending on your TV, you might not be getting all the stations you're accustomed to. And cable isn't going to show those extra channels unless you pay more for them.

To put it plainly, the country isn't ready for digital TV. That's why the President-elect and others in Congress want to move the deadline back as long as a year. Because the possibility exists that millions of Americans won't know what the President of the United States looks like, which could affect Obama's re-election chances in 2012. It's not an economic stimulus package or a national security threat, but now is no the time to declare "Let Them Eat Broadband".