Jun 14 2009
Digital switch from analog causing quite a Fuzz!!
Waiting to the last minute Making you Fuzzy?
Over 800,000 people called the FCC help line (1-888-CALL-FCC) on Friday after the switch off from analog to digital. Another 100,000 reportedly came in by 6 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
This not a surprise to the Federal Communications Commission who were expecting 600,000 to 3 million callers on transition day. As of last Sunday the number of unready households was estimated at 2.8 million or 2.5 percent of the total television market According to the Neilson Ratings. The original transition day had been scheduled for Feb 17 , this ramped up efforts of spreading the word and has been credited for halving the number of unready households since then.
The Commerce Department reported a last-minute rush for the $40 converter box coupons: It received 319,990 requests Thursday, nearly four times the daily average for the past month, and another 428,198 requests on Friday, for about 1.5 million since Monday. In all, the government has mailed coupons for almost 60 million converter boxes. The limit is two coupons per household.
All i am wondering is how can you be unprepared for such an event i myself watch around 20 -25 hrs of T.v. a week, but i remember myself becoming more and more frustrated by the constant bombardment of advertisements for the switch over invading my favorite shows.. By this happening it makes me think that how come none of the people that were calling in on Friday paid so little attention to the growing number of advertisements on their most prized possession of which they risked losing.
