Federal digital TV plan: Big changes, small budget
June 22nd, 2006The $5 million Congress budgeted to inform viewers about the changeover to digital TV won’t go far, according to John Kneuer, who heads the National Telecommunications & Information Agency, part of the federal Commerce Department. Kneuer, whose agency will administer the $40 converter box subsidy coupon program, today called on industry leaders to shoulder a major part of the consumer education effort.
The $1.5 billion plan to assist viewers with the cost of converters (a k a digital TV adapters), which will allow conventional analog televisions to continue receiving over-the-air broadcasts when the digital transition is completed in 2009, has been the source of some derision. The subsidy program, though, does weigh in at less than the $1.6 billion the Bush administration has spent on fake news, public relations and advertising recently (from 2003 through the second quarter of 2005, according to the GAO).
• Link: Broadcasting & Cable