DTV News: Feds Fix Digital-TV Coupon Site
Source: Washington Post (Online)
A security certificate error that arose if you typed “dtv2009.gov” into your browser, instead of www.dtv2009.gov was corrected this past week. This –was criticized at a hearing Tuesday of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. by Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).
DTV News: Firms Fined for Breaking Rules on Digital-TV Switch
Source: Wall Street Journal (Online)
Federal regulators proposed $6.6 million in fines against retailers and consumer-electronics makers for failing to inform consumers about the lack of digital tuner/converter in the television sets they were buying.
Among the stores fined, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., CompUSA Inc. and Sears Holding Corp., parent of K-Mart and Sears.
As of March 1, 2007, all new sets were required to be sold with digital tuners.
DTV News: Martin, Baker Face Worried Senators at DTV-Transition Oversight Hearing
Source: Broadcastingcable.com
74% of consumers still have major misconceptions about the transition to digital television according to some recent surveys. These surveys were brought to attention in a recent Digital TV Transition hearing by Senate Commerce Committee chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii).
There were some encouraging numbers mentioned in the hearing about an Association of Public Television Stations survey that the number of people who knew about the transition was increasing — from 51% to more than 75% in just three months.
DTV News: Digital TV Switch Could be Tough
Source: PCWorld
PCWorld claims that the U.S. is going to face some tough challenges ahead of the planned February 17th, 2008 Digital Television rollout. Some highlights from the story include:
- The U.S. government has allocated US$5 million to consumer education about the impending change - In contrast, the story notes that the U.K., with about a fifth of the population of the U.S., has allocated $600 million toward consumer education during its recently started digital TV (DTV) transition
- A $1.5 billion voucher program to help U.S. residents with analog TV sets purchase DTV converter boxes may only cover about 30 million TV sets
- Representative Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat,summarized that there’s been talk of using volunteers to help people hook up the converter boxes or replace antennas, but he suggested many of those volunteers would need training. “They’re going to need some kind of infrastructure behind them,” he said.
The story does add that the U.S. Government may seek further budget funds, which could help to ease the transition process. Monitoring the U.K.’s recent rollout success of Digital TV should benefit U.S. Consumers as well.
DTV News: LG Electronics eyes U.S. sales of 5 mln set-top boxes
Source: tradingmarkets.com
LG Electronics Co., said it expects to sell more than 5 million digital set-top boxes in the United States this year. Company officials also commented that LG is currently in talks with retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City to discuss distribution of the boxes.
