Six Meat Buffet » Blog Archive » I Want My Free TV (converter)!

I Want My Free TV (converter)!

January 2nd, 2008 at 11:32 pm by TinyElvis

Yesterday, having access to television broadcasts graduated from a privilege to a right as the Feds began their coupon giveaway program to assist Americans in purchasing digital converter boxes.

Beginning Feb. 18, 2009, anyone who does not own a digital set and still gets their programming via over-the-air antennas will no longer receive a picture… the converter boxes are expected to cost between $50 and $70..

Although this change was announced quite a while ago, for argument’s sake we’ll pretend that this is the first we’ve heard of it. Even with more than a year’s notice, Americans cannot be expected to save 20 cents per day so that they may purchase one of these boxes without government assistance?

Congress, in ordering the transition to digital broadcasting, set aside $1.5 billion for the coupon program, which will fund 33.5 million coupons and other costs.

Yes, that reads billion. $1.5 billion to ensure that noone misses a single episode of Jerry Springer.

The giveaway basically works under the honor system.

$1.5 billion is being spent and they can’t create a simple database to keep track of who has gotten their coupon. Lovely.

I wonder if they will also maintain a technical-support hotline for those who cannot figure out how to hook the damn thing up?

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5 Responses to “I Want My Free TV (converter)!”

Music City Bloggers » Blog Archive » Being Paid To Watch TV–Kind Of Says:
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:00 am
[...] There are so many things wrong with this that I don’t know where to begin. To make a long story short, you won’t be able to receive a TV picture without a digital converter after February 18th of 2009. [...]
Chris Says:
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
My parents are one of these people who still own a CRT TV and receive their stations over the air via analog reception. My entire life I’ve never met anyone else who receives their signals this way. I can’t imagine $1.5B worth of people still watch TV in such a fassion. And if there are, than your local Best Buy will be glad to hook up a convertor for you. The government needs to stay out of our (their) entertainment. That $1.5B can buy lots of armor for our troops.
charmingtail Says:
January 4th, 2008 at 8:36 am
I am a Telephone sales rep for Time Warner….let those morons pay $6.00 a month for basic cable. They spend that much on a pack of cigarettes…next thing ya know they will demand free internet!! Funny if they had a choice of free healthcare or free cable…those idiots will choose free cable
fungusamongus Says:
January 4th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Do like I did. Order both coupons with NO intention to use them. By not using them, this should save the taxpayers $80. Multiply that by as many people as we possibly can to do this and it could add up to a lot of cost savings…
curtis mallory Says:
January 26th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
i was told that we had two converters per household free of charge. i would like to get mine.

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