Digital TV Facts: The Latest

Giving Credit Where [Partial] Credit Is Due Dept.: Best Buy announced Wednesday that it will carry DTV converter boxes and participate in the U.S. government $40-off coupon program next year (as we predicted in August). If you watch local stations over the air on an analog TV, finding a life-extending digital-to-analog converter for it in 2008 should not be the chore that it is today.

But if you don’t already own an obsolescent TV (or five), turns out you can’t buy one at Best Buy. The consumer electronics behemoth announced—again!—that its days of selling old-technology television sets are over. Read the rest of this entry »

Retailers have been warned repeatedly about selling analog TVs without displaying appropriate warnings. With the shutdown of traditional analog television broadcasts less than 19 months away, the FCC crackdown may enter a new stage, according to Congressional testimony from the commission’s chairman, Republican Kevin Martin. FCC commissioners are considering whether to recommend fines against “seven large retailers,” he said yesterday in a prepared statement. “These fines, in the aggregate, total over three million dollars.”

Federal regulations require retailers who sell analog-only TV sets to prominently display a consumer alert warning of the transition to digital TV, which is due to be completed on February 17, 2009. After that date, U.S. viewers will be unable to watch over-the-air broadcasts on an old-style TV without the aid of a DTV converter box.

FCC inspectors have visited about 1030 stores, along with many retailers’ web sites. As of July 19, more than 262 citations have been issued for violations. The FCC will also continue its investigations of companies that import or ship television receivers without DTV tuners, Martin said.

“Swift enforcement of all of our DTV-related rules is critical to protecting consumers from purchasing television sets that may be rendered useless in 18 months,” he added, in remarks prepared for an appearance before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “Enforcement activities in this area will continue to be a priority for the Commission in the coming year.”

Earlier:
• Analog TV is past its sell-by date
• Analog TV violations: Notify the FCC
• Target’s analog TV muddle

Should you still buy an analog TV? Stores are marking them down and clearing them out, making way for more digital televisions. The DTV transition will wrap up on February 17, 2009, and if you want a “classic-style” TV, this may be your last chance.

Let me say this upfront: I’ll pass on this deal. The value proposition of an obsolete TV set just doesn’t move me.

Granted, an old-technology TV isn’t completely worthless. Read the rest of this entry »

If you suspect violations of the FCC’s digital tuner mandate or analog TV labeling requirements, you can file a report with the commission.

The DTV tuner rule prohibits the manufacture, import, or interstate shipment of any device containing an analog television tuner, unless it also contains a digital tuner. The tuner mandate took final effect on March 1, 2007.

Though stocks are dwindling, analog-only TVs remain on the shelves of many stores. At retail outlets, in catalogs or online, sellers are required to display a consumer alert, warning of the shutdown of analog TV broadcasts on February 17, 2009.

Complaints may be filed via email sent to fccinfo@fcc.gov, or via phone (toll-free): 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322); TTY: 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322). To file online or by mail, see the FCC web site.

The list of citations on the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s DTV page has grown quite long. The only tuner-mandate enforcement actions shown are those from late May against Syntax-Brillian and Regent USA. But warnings about retail signage have gone out to many large retailers, including Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco, Toys ‘R’ Us and several others noted earlier. The enforcers are on the job, evidently, and they are to be commended.

At the bottom of the retail citation list is Nebraska Furniture Mart, a small chain of large-format home stores that may be familiar to readers of Berkshire Hathaway annual reports. The FCC, it seems, isn’t even afraid to go after generous billionaire Warren Buffett.

Elsewhere in Washington, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) decided earlier this year that it would not discriminate against the filthy rich. The federal agency made Bill Gates, Donald Trump and everyone else eligible for the federal DTV coupon program. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Buffett, a value investor with a reputation for frugality, writes in for his very own $40-off coupon.

The FCC cited Target last month for violations of analog TV signage requirements, both on the retailer’s web site and at several of its stores. Wouldn’t you expect Target, after such an embarrassment, to be extra careful about how they describe those outmoded television sets to their customers?

Yet if you shop the Target web site today, you might run across a category in its electronics section called “FCC Tuner Compliance.” Now, what would you expect to find in that category?
Read the rest of this entry »

The FCC has warned major retailers that failure to properly label analog television sets will bring large fines. But what about the consumer who purchased a soon-to-be obsolete TV from Best Buy, Circuit City, Kmart, Amazon.com, or other stores that received FCC citations over the past month? The government has not, as of yet, required any retailer to make amends to customers who were not warned of the transition to digital TV.

These facts have not escaped the notice of Finkelstein Thompson LLP, a Washington law firm specializing in class-action suits. The firm has placed online advertisements (headlined “Analog TV Investigation”) seeking over-the-air viewers who recently purchased analog TVs and were unaware of the February 17, 2009 deadline for the shutdown of analog TV broadcasts.

Consumers who “have information about the investigation” or who want to “discuss…possible legal remedies” can contact Finkelstein Thompson’s Washington, D.C., office.

Earlier:
• Analog TV labels: FCC cites 4 more retailers
• FCC is warning retailers on DTV warnings
• FCC mandates analog TV warning labels

Read more:
• Analog TV Labeling

The latest online retailer to get an FCC warning over analog TV labeling: Dell.

• Link: FCC [pdf]

Another analog TV labeling citation was announced by the FCC today. This time, the warning goes to Computer Nerds International, Inc., which operates an online store called TheNerds.net.

• Link: FCC

Wal-Mart is another retailer who, despite earlier announcements to the contrary (see: Best Buy), has yet to exhaust its supply of analog TV sets. In Philadelphia, where Jonathan Takiff made a “vigilante” sweep of local electronics stores in search of old-style TVs lacking FCC-mandated warning labels, Wal-Mart was selling

a stack of Orion 9-inch TVs with built-in DVD players and AC/DC power capability. Perfect for the RV—for the next 20 months or so. No signs indicated this analog-only “bargain” ($138.88) was on the road to broadcast-TV oblivion.

The nation’s biggest big-boxster did label some TVs with the federal consumer advisory—including sets equipped with digital tuners!

Best Buy is still hawking analog sets, though at least in South Philly they are adequately labeled. Radio Shack also passed the test. At Target, Takiff was delighted to find 13-inch SDTV digital models for $99.99; I’ve seen them online (thanks to tipster Dan) for even less.

• Link: Philadelphia Daily News

The FCC issued two “educational and training” advisories today concerning analog televisions, part of its efforts to ensure proper labeling of nondigital TVs at the retail level in advance of the 2009 shutdown of analog broadcasts.

The first, directed toward consumer agencies, is published in cooperation with the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (NACAA). The second, for retailers, is published by the FCC and the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition (CERC).

• Links: FCC: Retail [pdf]; Consumer [pdf]

The latest FCC citations over the labeling of analog TVs were issued to Buy.com and Newegg.com this week.

The commission is continuing its crackdown on web retailers, warning that continued failure to inform consumers about televisions equipped with only analog tuners will result in large fines.

• Links: FCC: Buy [pdf], Newegg [pdf]

Wal-Mart, adding new flat-panel TVs from Vizio and Sony, will also add “HDTV specialists” to electronics departments on a test basis.

(They’ll wear yellow shirts…in a subliminal attempt to convince shoppers they’re at Best Buy.)

The Walton World approach contrasts with troubled Circuit City, where product specialists are being eliminated.

Wal-Mart is one megaretailer that has, thus far, steered clear of the storm of analog-TV labeling citations raining down from the FCC—its compliance made easier, no doubt, by its decision to dump analog models last month.

Earlier:
• High-end plasma, LCD TVs at Wal-Mart’s upscale prototype

• Link: TWICE