Suppliers Nervous About TV Conversion

[bos]

Wired News - AP News

Old people everywhere wont know what to do without TV. =) At this point there is no reason you shouldnt have digital cable, but in chances that you dont, I dont foresee a shortage of these converter boxes.

 

[tim_redd]

Most old people have cable or satellite, but they still freak out cause they don't know any better.

 

[brianhos]

I highly doubt the 14.3M number, that sounds pretty high. That would be one in 15 people, and I don't know anyone that does not have at least basic cable.

Maybe they are including all those that pull TV OTA like I do and pump into my HD DVR.

 

[bos]

and the folks who have the old cabinet tvs with the bunny ears built in and no coax. =)

 

[ISUFan22]

If Best Buy is worried/nervous about something, by default - I am not.

 

[bos]

If Best Buy is worried/nervous about something, by default - I am not.

Thats ok, Best Buy will make up for the shortage with higher prices and the immediate necessity for a Geek Squad contract.

 

[BryceC]

I highly doubt the 14.3M number, that sounds pretty high. That would be one in 15 people, and I don't know anyone that does not have at least basic cable.

Maybe they are including all those that pull TV OTA like I do and pump into my HD DVR.

I know at least 4 couples my age that I know that don't have any form of cable or a digital TV. I don't know how they do it, but I bet I know at least 10 households that don't have any form of cable.

Edit: To be perfectly honest, I told my wife I wouldn't care if we didn't have cable or not. It's so dang expensive I hardly think it's worth it most of the time. Except I would miss a ton of sports then.

 

[saf]

We dropped our cable--one of the best decisions we have made. We calculated out that every time we watched a show on cable TV it was almost the equivalent cost of going to a movie. We enjoy movies a lot more, so we dropped cable. We haven't actually changed our movie-going habits, but we do enjoy having that money in our pockets/investments.

 

[ISUFan22]

I will counter by setting the building on fire...

 

[jumbopackage]

Wired News - AP News

Old people everywhere wont know what to do without TV. =) At this point there is no reason you shouldnt have digital cable, but in chances that you dont, I dont foresee a shortage of these converter boxes.

Analog cable will continue to work just as it always have. if you have any sort of cable whatsoever, you will be fine after the conversion. Even with digital cable, currently, many people still have just analog TVs.

 

[saf]

Also, cable and Internet were fairly close cost-wise, but we use/enjoy the Internet much, much more than we did cable TV.

 

[isufbcurt]

Wired News - AP News

At this point there is no reason you shouldnt have digital cable

I have regular Mediacom cable not digital. I have no desire to have the digital, my regular suits my needs just fine.

 

[bos]

I have regular Mediacom cable not digital. I have no desire to have the digital, my regular suits my needs just fine.

I say this because in Sioux City it isnt much more money to have digital cable than standard. I think they had it at 5 more. I wonder how much longer until they force people to have digital cable.

 

[wolverine68]

I'm not worried, I got me one of these...

 

[LindenCy]

We dropped our cable--one of the best decisions we have made. We calculated out that every time we watched a show on cable TV it was almost the equivalent cost of going to a movie. We enjoy movies a lot more, so we dropped cable. We haven't actually changed our movie-going habits, but we do enjoy having that money in our pockets/investments.

I would agree; per show, cable is not worth it for me unless I sat in front of the TV all the time, and I really don't wish to do that. I think in Iowa more people have cable because you cannot get much on "free" TV, but in urban centers I think many people still don't have cable due to availability of broadcast TV and expense.

 

[jumbopackage]

I would agree; per show, cable is not worth it for me unless I sat in front of the TV all the time, and I really don't wish to do that. I think in Iowa more people have cable because you cannot get much on "free" TV, but in urban centers I think many people still don't have cable due to availability of broadcast TV and expense.

There really isn't any difference between the broadcast TV stations in "major" cities and the broadcast stations available in Iowa.

It's somewhat more of a hassle sometimes to pick up over the air signals in Iowa, though, because the distance between stations is probably a bit higher for folks in rural communities.