by Derek—2005.10.23 @ 1823
I’m out of the loop.
Melissa and I just don’t watch TV, and in the rare event that we (or our children) watch TV, the channels we do watch are the free ones: PBS, local news, etc. I just found out that the government is mandating TV stations to switch to an all-digital signal in order to free up valuable radio waves for emergency first-responders. TV is going all-digital. The problem is that the mandate will mean a whole bunch of people (our family included) will need to purchase digital TV sets or get converter boxes in order to get any signal.
Rep. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), is proposing a $3 Billion budget in order to purchase analog-digital converter boxes to give to Americans. Since the government is enforcing the move to digital, it surely must pay Americans to have the equipment to watch it.
But were analog TV sets free to begin with?
The deadline date, April 7, 2009, also has some interesting fodder:
The seemingly random date of April 7, 2009, isn’t all that random. Stevens wanted to make sure that any digital switch wouldn’t come in the middle of popular programming during the holidays, football bowl games, and the March Madness college basketball playoffs.
In many ways, I’m glad we’re not so big into television. It seems so un-important. If people (myself included) want to watch TV so badly, than they should pay and get themselves a new digital TV set! When has TV become a necessity? Is there something on TV that the government wants us to see? Sounds like steps towards 1984 to me.
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