Digital TV Bill Comes Up Short

DIGITAL TV BILL COMES UP SHORT
[SOURCE: TVPredictions.com, AUTHOR: Phillip Swann]
[Commentary] Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas), Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois), and Fred Upton (R-Michigan) have introduced legislation designed to help educate consumers on the nation's transition to Digital TV (see http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/4586). The new legislation aims at the right target -- the government's need to educate consumers on the transition from analog to digital. However, it fails to provide the proper weapons: funding and specifics. The federal government needs a detailed DTV education plan, which includes a major advertising campaign reaching TV viewers, radio listeners and print and online readers. And it needs the money to carry out that plan. The $5 million that's been approved thus far is laughable. And so are the warning labels on analog TVs. Do you really think people look at warning labels? After all these years of warning labels on cigarettes? They are ignored. The feds also shouldn't count on the TV industry to do all the heavy lifting. Congress passed the Digital TV transition law -- it has the greatest responsibility to ensure that it's properly implemented.
http://www.tvpredictions.com/dtveducation012307.htm