PBS President Decries DTV Converter-Box Coupon Waiting List
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - The federal government should ensure that children and lower income families aren’t left behind in the DTV conversion, PBS President Paula Kerger said on the TV Critics Association’s winter press tour. “I am very disheartened to hear that a month before the deadline that the government has run out of money” for DTV coupons, she said. “To put citizens on a waiting list is inexcusable.” Kerger asked Congress to fix the situation. “We need to make sure every household that can be connected to a box should be connected to a box.
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Kerger said some coupon applicants procrastinated, but other obstacles contributed, including expiration of the coupons after 90 days, the lack of boxes when the coupons were first offered and the economic crisis. “Part of the reason the demand for coupons has been larger than anticipated is that less people are upgrading to new sets because of the current economy,” she said.
Kerger also said the 8 percent circulated as the proportion of households that can’t receive DTV is misleading because the figure relates to one-set homes and doesn’t count second and third sets. “We are concerned the estimates of untethered sets have been greatly underestimated and many of the untethered set are the ones used by children, especially from lower-income families, to watch television. That’s why PBS is perhaps more concerned than other broadcasters about this transition. We're in an interesting confluence of various factors, so we need to stay focused to get people converted. Television is not dead and this whole process has reaffirmed how much people rely on their TVs to stay connected to the world.”
Kerger said she was agnostic on the low-power exemption. “We knew we would have to make the transition and so we planned for it early. Stations had to rebuild their entire plants to conform to the new digital structure. But stations are prepared so now we can focus on getting the users of our service able to see the programming… The digital transition has been a challenge for sure but it’s also an opportunity in being able to increase our audience reach.” Kerger conceded that multicasting isn’t bringing additional revenue yet, “just additional cost.” But she said by reaching more people “we will hopefully increase our funding base.”
Kerger expressed hopes for the new administration. “We have been working carefully to reach out to the transition team. We are heartened by their signaling of interest in the arts. That bodes well for public broadcasting. We're also realistic. There are tough economic times. Anyone in my shoes should not assume that just because we've done great work in the past [that means] we will automatically get funding in the future.”
PBS was disproportionately affected by this issue of digital transition, Senior Vice President John Wilson told TV writers. He also predicted that despite recent figures showing that 92 percent of U.S. households were digital-ready via satellite, cable or converter box, “I suspect there will still be 3 percent [that] won’t be there on February 17 for any number of reasons. Only half of the people who got a coupon have gotten the converter box.” He credited broadcasters and print media for educating viewers, but “90 percent ready just means one set of a multi-TV set is ready. So one or two of the extra TVs might be receiving off the air signals and those also need to get ready.” - Kathleen Tracy