I've listened to a number of folks who claim they know what they're talking about and even what they're doing, and I have reached several conculions on my own.
One of my main thoughts is: It NEVER should have been set in February in the FIRST PLACE. This begs to question, What idiot looked at a calender and stabbed it and said, February looks good,? November through March or in some places are darn near impossible to work outside, and make service call, Much less putting up antenna and the like.
So we're going to have millions of people, mostly elderly or in some way handicapped in one way or another, calling the 800 numbers or their local tv stations when they're tv won't work, and many times talking them through doing stuff like hooking stuff up ins darn near impossible, so your going have to send someone to physically go the the site and see if the can get it to work. In the Middle of February....LOL. I'm glad I'm not one of them...!!!
For the last three years we've been drilling into the nations collective consciousness this was, A. good for us, and B, going to happen, and to suddenly now back off is going to cause mass problems all around. Thats not even counting the money spent, and what will need to be spent if they move it at the last minute. I would say at this point, less then 3 weeks away, things are as ready as they're going to be, Just Do It.! You've made your collective beds,as to doing it int the first place, and doing it now, NOW Lie in IT!!!
As I said before it never should have been set for now, but it is, its your mess, now fix it, and moving it isn't going to fix anything, just prolong the pain.
The coupon, while a good idea, was probably mis managed, and run wrong from the start. Now of course it out of money. Its simple, extend the deadline on all unused coupons, and extend the time on all newly issued coupons, to give folks a chance to get their boxes when they come back into stock.
Television broadcasters have weighted in say thats it going to cost substantial sums to keep the analogue towers going until June. that future money they could be putting into the new channels or programing or other niche services.
One of the many things that has come to light lately, (I suspect they at some of the tech guys knew it before), Is the issue of the way digital signals travel. Apparently, they travel in more of a straight line and don't tend to get into valleys and cross high hills and mountains real well. The point being there are going to many rural folks who barely got their relatively local, local stations now, who very possibly won't get anything, even if they do everything right. What are they supposed to do? Those are the folks who probably barely get a slow dial-up connection, and pay too much for that, and can only get it through their phone company.
In recent years the tv has become more then the the "Boob Tube" to sit in front and while away the hours. It has become a more integral part of the home entertainment system, including surround sound system, music servers, move servers, and both DVD and Blu-ray, High definition disc players. Essentially becoming the monitor for a entire media hub for the house, with all the players including games and now even pcs hooked to it, You can stream media off both your local hard drive, and even directly off the web. So, needly to say the selection of the new tv has become more complicated. One must fist consider, where its going, how big to get, and finely very importantly what connection do you need to hook up to it. Actually, in one way its easy, More is better, because of the changing nature of television and the media in general, you will be asking it to do more and more in the future, so having as many connection, both legacy, and new is best in the long run.
In the end it comes down to, this; While it was stupid to set the date in a month like February, its was, and its here, quit bitching and just do it already.
You'll have the rest of the year to clean up the mess...
