February 17, 2009: A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

Image Courtesy of Consumers Union

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, at the Columbia University event I attended, the folks from Consumers Union were handing out a fantastic booklet about the digital tv transition taking place in a little more than 2 months on Feb 17, 2009. We plan to have copies of the booklet on hand at our breakfast with George Kliavkoff on Dec 17th

In the meantime I received the following email from Gail Brewer a member of the NYC Council about the transition talking place and a meeting they are planning in partnership with WABC-TV

DTV Transition before Feb 17, 2009: We have organized meetings with community organizations and WABC TV, and we held a hearing on the topic at City Hall. People who have televisions with “rabbit ears” do know to order the coupons so as to purchase the converter boxes, but the problems are: 1. Lack of translation on the FCC telephone line; 2. The coupon is not for the full price of the box. People receive the coupon in the mail but it expires before they can purchase the box because the box costs more than the coupon. A woman came to the District Office on Friday and her coupon expires in a few days. She does not have the extra money to get a box right now. Needless to say, we will find a way to get her another coupon with a longer expiration date but lots of workshops on the issue are necessary. The Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network (HITN) is focusing on the issue with hands-on support, and the NYC Dept. of Consumer Affairs has material on the topic. For more info, contact Kunal Malhotra at kunal.malhotra@council.nyc.gov

CLICK HERE FOR A GREAT OVERVIEW FROM CONSUMER REPORTS AS WELL.