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U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog

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October 20, 2007

Another hearing on TVs going dark

dtv_square.gif U.S. PIRG staff attorney and telecom expert Amina Fazlullah testified Wednesday (her testimony, full hearing) on the consumer impacts of the so-called DTV transition before Rep. Ed Markey's (D-MA) Telecommunications subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Other witnesses included FCC chair Kevin Martin. We're concerned, as Amina's testimony points out, that many consumers will be left in the dark:

One other thing will happen on February 17, 2009. Every consumer who watches over-the-air TV with an analog set will have their set go dark. Including in the estimated 22 million consumers in this category are 8 million households with at least one member older than 50. The government is of course at least aware of this problem. Congress has allocated funding for an education program. The relevant agencies have required that manufacturers stop producing new analog televisions and that retailer properly label the remaining analog televisions at the point of sale. Congress has also allocated funding to provide coupons to help consumers pay for the necessary converter boxes to get their analog television sets to work again. Yet, based on preliminary U.S. PIRG research, which we will discuss today, neither government nor retailers are adequately preparing consumers for the impending DTV transition.
Here's the FCC's DTV website.

Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at October 20, 2007 10:56 AM


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