@CyGuy:

Alternately, the retailers+manufacturers could have charged substantially less per box (the vast majority of them are extremely low-featured tuners which cost a handful of dimes to manufacture), and the program wouldn't be running out of cash.

@faintandfuzzies: I hate being forced to upgrade my technology. They made me purchase an automobile to do my interstate travel, as apparently horses are not permitted on the highways these days. They already took telegrams away from me, but this is just RIDICULOUS!

/sarcastic response in which the devil's advocate is played

some older people. i know some older people that figured it out. they are retired, and have enough time to figure out such things. but yes it was the man that figured it out. its really not that hard.

still there should be a limit to how far one has to bend over backwards to help people who can't be bothered to educate themselves. digital tv is pretty goddamned far from rocket science.

@rainmkr: May I suggest a set of Monster component cables to go with those converter boxes?

The government MANDATED that people's current TVs would no longer function by giving away bandwidth to corporations. THAT's the pissing on the constitution bit.

The coupon program is a poor form of restitution for that, it part because the giveaway is worthless to said corporations if people who can't but new TVs can't watch their TV ads any longer.

That's right, our pals at Comcast are funding these pseudo-PSAs in cahoots with the local stations. I saw the same ad tagline on a CT station (Ch. 8 in New Haven) and recently on the Fox affiliate in Boston.

Because it's a scam that's why. The electronics companies aren't stupid. They know you'd be willing to spend at least $20 to watch TV even with no government coupons. For example, that's a typical going price for a DVD player, another simple, mass-produced product. So if the government hadn't intervened, I guarantee you these devices would range from $20-60 (low-end to high-end).

Because of the subsidy, these firms know you would still pay $20-60, and they know you have a voucher for an additional $40. So of course they just marked up all the prices by $40. Thus the range we see today of $60-$100.

The voucher destroyed any incentive to be price competitive (below a certain point) among the mfg's or retailers because Uncle Sam is picking up $40 of the tab.

Net result: $1.4 Billion handed from government coffers to electronics manufacturers and retailers.

If you want evidence that this outcome was created on purpose, consider this: They could have imposed an additional restriction on the boxes eligible for the coupon--a requirement that they cost no more than $40. Faced with the prospect of either getting $40 for a box or not getting a sale, the manufacturers would have released a crap-ton of $40 converter boxes.

@Meltingemail: I hear you. My parents are driving me nuts with needing to buy a new TV

@dmuth: I took mine about 6 or 7 weeks to arrive.

I have the following set up:

Antenna plugs into converter plugs into VCR plugs into TV.

To record, the VCR must be set to record whatever's on channel 3, and the converter box has to be on and set to whatever channel I want to tape. So, that means I can't watch anything else digital at the same time - I could still change the channel on the TV and watch OTA analog, but after February that'll be moot.

My 81-year-old dad insists that his TV is digital. I have the same TV at my apartment, and I know it's analog. (I got my coupon and my box in October, because I wanted better picture quality.) The TV has a really nice screen, and was purchased in the past 15 years, so I think that's why he thinks it's digital.

Every time they air the commercial about the transition, he says to me, "But you'll be fine, your TV is digital." "No Dad, it's analog." "It's the same as ours." "Yes, Dad, and yours is analog, just like mine." "No, it's digital." "No, Dad, it's got digital CABLE, but the TV is analog." This is when he gets grumpy and stops talking to me.

I would bet $1.34 billion that a large portion the coupons went to people who don't actually need them, i.e. people who didn't know whether they would need them and got them right away. I read the instructions and knew what I needed. If you're under 30 and you can use the Internet, I don't see how hard this is.

As for the person above who got them "for kicks" - I hope that means that someone has kicked you, as you're a jerk, and you are steadily approaching welfare queen status.

It makes me sick that people who are intelligent enough to read Consumerist don't bother to read instructions (and figure out what they need) or don't care (and take whatever they can get).

The corporations are once again feeding at the government/taxpayer trough.

#1 - The digital TV bandwidth allocation was a MASSIVE giveaway of the commons to private interests. [www.alternet.org]
This is tantamount to our trees giveaway in the national forests, the minerals giveaway via the Mining Act of 1872, etc etc.

#2 - The people getting coupons are just trying to keep their TVs working without having to pay for it. The public had ZERO input in this change and most people had no complaints about picture quality to begin with. This is however a huge, mandated giveaway to tech manufacturers.

Your concentration camp advocacy is offensive.

The corporations are once again feeding at the government/taxpayer trough.

#1 - The digital TV bandwidth allocation was a MASSIVE giveaway of the commons to private interests. [www.alternet.org]
This is tantamount to our trees giveaway in the national forests, the minerals giveaway via the Mining Act of 1872, etc etc.

#2 - The people getting coupons are just trying to keep their TVs working without having to pay for it. The public had ZERO input in this change and most people had no complaints about picture quality to begin with. This is however a huge, mandated giveaway to tech manufacturers.

Way to blame the victim!

Thanks for being part of the problem.

At least. I ordered one back around March of '08, and after waiting 6 weeks from the ship date without any sign of it, ordered another coupon. The DTV transition program CSR I spoke to informed me that was pretty common (the coupons getting lost in the mail).

This program is GOVERNMENT FUNDED. OUR GOVERNMENT is giving away BILLIONS of dollars to crooked corporate executives that is squandering OUR money, and now they are bitching about running out of money for a program that that is FORCING technology on its citizens???

My hometown newspaper (Lansing State Journal) has been reporting on these coupons, and apparently lots of people are requesting them and then never receiving them. I wonder if that's were some of the money is going, sending out coupons that never get to the recipient.

@whatdoyoucare: the same thing happened to me. all the stores were 'sold out' and the same with all the websites listed. when we finally found one, the day the coupon expired, it was some brand we'd never heard of.

i have another complaint about this whole thing too: why aren't there any for $40?--even the totally unknown brand ones are at least $60.

whatever. can't afford to buy a seperate box now without a coupon, a new tv, or cable. i'll keep my $20 internet and frequent hulu.

And those commercials hardly explain everything. A lot of the ones I've seen have been somewhat misleading. And a lot of older people don't use the internet so they can't go google the digital conversion and find out about it. Their way of figuring it out is going into their local electronics store and asking a trustworthy employee.

Oh well, there's nothing worth watching anyway.

If they did, they would have seen the commercials by now.

Oh, no!

@KHook321:

I've heard at least four ads, radio and TV, in the past week telling people that they "need to get an HDTV" because their current TV "will stop working."

Most of them have been from H.H. Gregg

Wow... really? I paid $10 after coupon for mine. I got it for the smaller TV I have that can be easily moved outside or whatnot.

Will this improve or get worse after February?

Yay $50 tax for goverment "update" of our analog crap.

It's a problem because I use my tv to babysit my parrot while I'm not home. And he does watch it. So I'm getting a tv switch box, the antenna and the converter box to let him watch tv for more than 6 hours while I'm not home. I'm usually gone for 9, so that means that he's got nothing to watch or listen too (and drown out the noise from the neighbors and apartment) for at least 3 hours a day.

And I wondered how he had time to escape his cage.

This post is not about a shortage of boxes. It's about a shortage of coupons, due in some cases to lack of education, and in other cases to a sense that, although I may have just bought a new plasma TV, I'm still poor and could use that discount.

"A recent study by Consumers Union showed that 41% of consumers polled think that every TV in a house must have a new converter box, even those that are already connected to cable or satellite."

My mom told me at the beginning of last year to go and get my coupon for the converter box because there were limited numbers being given out. So I did. When they came a few weeks later I was surprised to find out they had a relatively quick expiration date. At that time I hadn't seen any converter boxes in the stores yet (it was afterall about a year still before the switch). Sadly the coupons expired. I still need a converter box. On a happy note my husband bought a new hdtv at Christmas for our main tv but the small set in our bedroom may just turn into a dust collector. Sad for me.

Side note: on a recent local news report, they interviewed a couple that said they got five coupons for their five TVs and saved $100. Maybe this is why the program's running out of money, since you're only supposed to be eligible for 2.

How many people actually can get free TV?

I really think this is a case of people not understanding what's going on. People are confused over how to program a VCR let alone what digital and analog are.

BTW, thanks everyone who ordered coupons and/or converters you don't intend to use, you have reassured me that there is no shortage of pigs that want to feed at the government trough.

I have cable and don't "need" a box but at $25 after coupon it made sense to get one just in case I need one down the road or my cable goes out.

Obviously it's not enough, since people still don't get it. You answered your own statement.

@Skiffer: From the consumer's end, it's a handout. :)

Oh yeah... old people. I've been saying this as long as Consumerist has been covering the DTV switch: the people who are really going to be lost, confused, and taken advantage of are shut-in senior citizens who don't grok technology and don't have someone to explain it to them.

I've already had one phone scammer call my house telling me that my TV needs a converter "because the cable signal is changing." I bet seniors (who often end up on sleazy "sales lead lists") are getting it worse.

Man, that stimulus bill just has to do everything, doesn't it?

(Just Kidding!)

I suspect at least half of those coupons won't be used.

I pondered on whether or not to get a converter box for my 18 year old Sony but in the end I decided not to bother. Since I only get two DTV channels, it hardly seems worth it for a second set. Oh, that and there's pretty much nothing on broadcast TV worth watching.

IMPORTANT:
We have determined that you are eligible to participate in this program and your coupon application has been approved. However, because program funding is not currently available, you will not receive coupons unless more funding becomes available. If program funding becomes available you should receive your coupons in the mail.

Looks like they really are broke.

What a boondoggle.

If we're making this switch, why not go all the way and allow the cable channels with near 100% market penetration (CNN, ESPN) to open up digital broadcast channels in major markets-- I'm sure 1) they'd do it and 2) we'd put an end to cable as we know it.