Digital TV: The newest greatest thing since swiss cheese. Millions of Americans have been perfectly content with their rabbit eared television sets, including myself. I don’t have cable, don’t want cable, and don’t care about cable. As far as I’m concerned, the cable companies can stick it with their outrageous prices. Having rabbit ears is my silent “screw you” to the system, refusing to pay their prices but still getting basic channels for free over the air. And I’m sure I’m not the only person with this attitude.

And now comes along DTV, requiring that by law all analog transmissions must end, rendering our rabbit ears and millions of television sets about as useful as a DVD rewinder. But wait, the government is going to issue you not one, but TWO coupons giving you $40 off a converter box allowing you continued use of your analog television set. Check out their coupon site.

no coupons for you (even though you asked)

But untold numbers aren’t receiving their coupons, myself included. Check out the comments on this Consumer Reports blog. Oh and if you don’t receive it, they can’t send you another one… by law. That’s right, based on whatever cockamamie bill this DTV fiasco was devised under, if you don’t get your coupon, then too bad, you’re out of luck, the law says they can’t send you another one.

the numbers

When you add it all up, the amount of money being spent on coupons and converters is pretty fantastical. Every household in America, regardless of income, is eligible for two $40 coupons, a total of $80. Let’s use a nice even number and say there’s 100 million households in this country (there’s more, based on the census). 100 million X $80 is EIGHT BILLION DOALLRS. Eight… Billion… Dollars. That’s 8 billion dollars theoretically spent solely on digital TV converters. Well hell, manufacturers of DTV converters certainly are profiting. Not only that, but usually the $40 coupon doesn’t cover the entire cost of a converter; it’s usually $10-$20 more than the coupon (and you can’t combine coupons). This is $8b of required spending by the American public for the DTV conversion. The numbers are staggering.

So a law has been enacted effectively ending a free form of mass media. If you want to continue to receive this free media, you have to go spend money. But wait, the government will issue you two coupons helping you buy a converter. If you don’t receive those coupons, they won’t issue them again.

This is utterly mind-boggling. What next? Kill radio airwaves? Require a converter to use the internet? Declare your telephone obsolete? To be honest, this whole DTV thing is a scary reminder of who really controls our mediums for information, and how much power we actually have over it. You don’t have a right to free analog television anymore, the government just said so. And if you’d like to continue using your current TV without cable, then go spend money. Thanks a lot, Uncle Sam.