# Cable companies "educate" customers about digital TV



## c152driver (Jan 21, 2007)

From the article:



> The spots open with a graphic that reads: "By law TV stations will end analog broadcasts on February 17, 2009, and broadcast exclusively in digital." That's followed by cable customers assuring viewers that "every TV set you have that's hooked up to cable will work just fine."
> 
> Kyle McSlarrow, president and CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, said the industry is following through on a promise made to Congress to help educate consumers on the transition.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070906/ap_on_hi_te/digital_cable_4

How generous of them. I wonder if they planing on telling people they can continue to receive programming OTA with a digital converter. :sure:


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## n3ntj (Dec 18, 2006)

..and the cable companies will also probably tell their customers that satellite TV won't provide HD programming... and that satellite goes out everytime is drizzles... ;-)


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## kenglish (Oct 2, 2004)

More carpetbaggers, coming in and riding the coattails of the broadcasters' "Digital Transition".


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## kenglish (Oct 2, 2004)

All they tell you is "how easy it is to just get Cable":

http://www.ncta.com/ContentView.aspx?ContentId=4351

No, that is NOT Tracey Ullman in the first one.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

> All they tell you is "how easy it is to just get Cable"


Well, in all reality it is. Plugging in a cable is a lot easier then hooking up an antenna, aiming it, and trying to get all your locals, especially if you are farther away from their digital transmitters.

There's posts here about how millions of serious and poor people will be without TV come 2009. Cable companies are trying to inform customers about this, and you people don't like it. I suppose if DirecTV and Dish ran similar commercials they'd get some type of good will award.


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## c152driver (Jan 21, 2007)

Steve Mehs said:


> I suppose if DirecTV and Dish ran similar commercials they'd get some type of good will award.


Not at all. I just think it's humorous the cable companies are trying to pass this off as an educational campaign. The cable companies wouldn't be spending $200 million if this were simply an educational campaign.

If they were really concerned about the poor people who may potentially lose their OTA signals, they would have more clearly stated that households will be able to get a subsidized converter box, instead of subtly pitching cable which will lock people into a monthly fee as opposed to a one time expense.

I like how their spots say "and if you still have rabbit ears..." while they show a 25+ year old TV with snow on the screen.

I actually credit the cable companies for finely walking the line between an informational campaign and a dis-informational campaign.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

And digital signals don't have the tolerance analog does, so for a lot of people who don't live in urban areas digital converters won't do much good. I see nothing wrong with these ads, they are no worse the DirecTV's 729 HD channels that don't exist yet or Dish Networks cable pig campaign in which they increased their rates less then three months later.


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## Juggernaut (Apr 5, 2007)

I am a tiny bit surprised by this. Cable would love to get that spectrum back just as much as the FCC. They can cram a lot more on the spectrum by switching to digital. My guess was that they'd use 2009 as an excuse to rent you a converter box for each of your analog only TVs.


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## kenglish (Oct 2, 2004)

All they are doing is getting the poor and the elderly to sign a contract for Cable TV before the FCC/NTIA/NAB/MSTV informational campaign hits the airwaves next year, telling people that they can get TV for free.

BTW, in the time that it takes to watch their 30-second "informational spot", one of those government-subsidized converters can be connected, scan the entire spectrum, and be getting FREE DIGITAL TV, via OTA.

So much for "all that tran-zish-shun stuuuf" they talk about.


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