Media Expert Predicts Digital 'Train Wreck'

MEDIA EXPERT PREDICTS DIGITAL 'TRAIN WRECK'
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman warned of a coming "train wreck" as television broadcasters shift to digital signals while relying on a poorly-funded outreach effort to consumers. "This really calls for a [sweeping] governmental program. The public isn't going to pay a lot of attention to these voluntary efforts," he told a policy conference sponsored by the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. The blunt assessment followed rosier predictions by a Commerce Department official and the heads of the major broadcast, electronics and cable associations. Schwartzman questioned the public-service campaigns being planned to tell consumers that older TV sets won't work without converter boxes after the digital transition. He said they won't reach those who need assistance the most, including non-English speakers, seniors and the poor. "I really fear for it," he said. "The people who are going to be hurt are the people at the bottom." Another concern is that a National Telecommunications and Information Administration coupon program to subsidize the boxes will fall short. The vouchers are designed to help analog-dependent TV viewers purchase devices that will keep their sets functioning after the Feb. 17, 2009, switchover. Millions of coupons need to be at bodegas, laundromats and other neighborhood venues, not just electronics stores, Schwartzman said. He also warned that the transition would be undermined without mandatory cable carriage of ancillary digital signals and by broadcaster opposition to freeing unused TV spectrum for unlicensed devices.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/2007/07/media_expert_predicts_digital.html