DTV Transition not embraced by everyone

Photo courtesy of blog.usa.gov.

Written by: Lindsey Romain
Edited by: Kenneth Cotto

Stephanie Fetting’s television is face down in her garage, where it’s been collecting dust since December.

Fetting, 19, made the conscious decision to ditch her bedroom TV set at her house as soon as she heard of the planned digital television, or DTV, switchover in February. She is part of a very small percentage of people who’ve been opposing the transition since the decision was solidified last year.

Raised in a strict Catholic household in Peck, Mich., Fetting gave up television for Lent last year at her mother’s suggestion. She’s been anti-TV since.

“I use my set at school to watch movies with my roommates, and that’s it,” says Fetting, a sophomore at Central Michigan University, majoring in communication disorders and gerontology.

While her gadget-obsessed peers type texts on their BlackBerrys or upload music to iTunes, Fetting considers herself a technology pacifist. She owns a cell phone, a laptop and an MP3 player (not an iPod, as she’s quick to point out), but is a minimalist with all three. She prefers reading and writing, or playing intramural sports like volleyball and basketball. She’s the head of her campus’ gerontology and language hearing clubs, and is on her dorm’s hall council.

“I could care less about television for the most part,” she says. “I get my news from the newspaper or online. And any TV shows that I want to watch come out on DVD, so I just watch them then.”

She even convinced her parents to neglect purchasing a new television set or converter box for the DTV transition, admitting they utilize their radio more than most modern families.

“It just doesn’t really matter to us,” says Fetting.

By this point, the digital television transition is hardly news. Commercials and corner-of-the-screen ads have been reminding us since December that TV is about to take it to the next level. The transition date was set for Feb. 17, 2009, but a bill passed by the House on Feb. 4 pushed the date to June 12 after Nielsen Media predicted 6.5 million American households weren’t prepared for the switch.

The bill, signed by President Obama on Feb. 11, was designated to give those households a little more time to get with the program (literally).

Digital TV is the latest nationwide technology advancement craze, a way of transforming static analog cable to crystal-clear, high definition television images. The transition has been in progress since early 2007, when televisions were first required to be produced with HDTV tuners.



Network TV stations have been preparing for the transition for the past year, several of which already to switched to DTV on Feb. 17 despite the bill. Since that day, more than 600 broadcasters have already terminated their analog signals.

The majority of Americans have embraced the transition. In fact, millions of people remain on waiting lists for converter coupons, which offer a major discount on the pricey boxes. Households that have satellite TV or have bought sets in the last few years won’t even have to bother with converter boxes.

In a country immersed in updating technology whenever new versions are available, DTV seems like another step in the right direction.

However some, like Fetting, have seen the transition as a way of bidding farewell to the TVs that plague them. For others, like Erin Reynolds, 21, a Washington College senior from College Park, Md., price constraints have also factored into the decision to part with TV.

Reynolds, an English major graduating in June, says she’s troubled by the hassle of having to replace her beloved “bunny-eared” TV set, a fixture in her room since she was a child. Unfortunately, the bunny-eared receivers will be rendered ineffective come June 12. No bother for Reynolds, who, like Fetting, plans to keep the set for the sole purpose of watching movies.

Reynolds is in the process of finding an apartment for her June departure from her college housing complex. She had plans to buy a new TV before she was let go from her part-time job tuning pianos at a music store last month. Now that money is harder to come by. She blacklisted the hopes of buying a new TV, or a converter box for her old one, and saw the transition as an opportunity to give it all up.

“If I really wanted to watch TV, I’d make it work,” she says. “But I’d rather pay for wireless internet so I can watch my shows online anyway.”

Somewhere in the process of actively not caring, she got swept into the politics of the situation, joining the Facebook group Boycott DTV, where users have expressed a radical opposition to the transition.

The Boycott DTV group description expresses a governmental concern with the DTV switch, likening the officials mandating the transition to Big Brother, stating that the “terrorist rhetoric has begun.” Members share links to other articles and websites, one in particular from Yahoo! that asks “Is the change from analog to digital TV a conspiracy?”

The group was founded by Facebook user Louise M. Doire, a religious studies instructor at the College of Charleston in Charleston, Sc., who claims she is irritated with the “heavy-handedness” and “complete lack of choice” about the transition.

“There was a threatening tone of the advertising that went along with, ‘If you don’t switch to cable or get a converter box, your television reception will end!’” she says in regards to her opposition to the switch.

Doire created the group in January after consistent annoyance with ads and complaints from students and faculty. She penned the hard-hitting words found in the group's description.

Reynolds, who joined the group last month, claims she’s on the quieter end of the spectrum, laughing off the totalitarian angle her fellow group members are professing.

“I see it as more of an innocent thing,” she says. “The word ‘boycott’ for me just meant ‘hell yeah, goodbye TV.’”

Facebook isn’t the only outlet for angry Americans in opposition to DTV. Media blog New Media Musings points out that digital video recording devices, such as VCRs, will no longer be able to record programs because of a “broadcast flag” encoded in DTV streams. The blog suggests boycotting DTV because it’s a “lockdown regime,” taking away the traditional rights we had with analog TV.

Fetting hasn’t gone as far as boycotting, but she does express concern that the transition is a little drastic, especially during the country’s current economic crisis.

“When my parents’ jobs are being threatened, I don’t really think it’s appropriate to expect them to go out and buy all of this new stuff just to watch the news,” she says.

DTV is, and that mandating the switch is “too much to ask.”

Doire agrees.

“[I resent] the assumption that everyone has computer access to get a converter box coupon,”she said. “I keep wondering what will happen to those who cannot afford cable, cannot afford a computer. I suspect that is a reality that accounts for more American families than we think.”

Part-time librarian Cynthia Morningstar, of Shelbyville, Ind., offers a different take on the matter. A long-time reading advocate, Morningstar stresses the importance of the written word as opposed to the superficial world of television.

“The most important thing about reading is that it strengthens a person’s vocabulary,” she said. “People with better vocabularies come off as articulate, intelligent, and more interesting. You don’t get that from watching TV.”

Fetting also credits reading with her decision to stay away from the tube.

“My mom was a school librarian,” she explains. “We were always reading. I’m never not reading.”

Is that one reason for her anti-TV antics?

“It’s definitely one of the main reasons, if not the reason.”

“The lack of television inspires imagination,” Morningstar said. “We didn’t have a TV when I was growing up, so I had to work at paying attention to clues and character details in the stories. With TV, you see it, and the magic of the imagination disappears.”

Despite boycotts and online bantering, June 12, 2009 will mark America’s final transition to digital television. That is, of course, permitting another bill isn’t passed for a further delay.

By late June, July, the months following, or next year, it seems inevitable that some of DTV’s opponents will succumb to the trend. Doire, once so adamantly against the switch, has already bought a coupon for a converter box, admitting that she’s lost the drive to commit to the boycott.

Fetting admits that purchasing a new TV or converter might be inevitable down the road.

“Never say never. But for right now, I could care less,” she said.

Reynolds is a little less carefree, admitting her apartment will seem quiet without the presence of a TV, but that she’ll be proud of herself.

“I’ll probably read more, like I’ve been meaning to. And I’ll have more money in my purse.”

“Mostly,” she said, “I’ll miss channel surfing.”