U.S. PIRG’s small
but hearty crew unearthed problems the entire consumer electronics industry and
the Federal government have not fully confronted: yet another weak link in the
national effort to help millions of Americans weather the DTV transition. I
thank them for bringing this to light.
If young, tech
savvy retail workers don’t get it, imagine how your grandma who’s owned the same
TV for 30 years is going to cope. Imagine the challenge that awaits the elderly, those with
disabilities, the low income, non-English speakers, and people in rural
America.
Today’s report
underscores the Federal government’s failure to have a real national DTV
plan to coordinate the efforts of government and the private sector. The
message that consumers are getting from retailers is mixed, distorted, and at
times, inaccurate.
We’re sending out weak signals, so the
public isn’t getting a clear picture.
Consumers rely
on the retailers’ sales staffs. Their need for informed and accurate advice
about technical and practical matters will only increase in the next year. So
it is alarming that some sales associates are so unclear about the details of
the government’s converter box and coupon program. Even scarier, some can’t
even provide basic details like the date of the DTV transition. There should be
no confusion about the February 17, 2009 date -- that’s the simplest and most
consistent fact of all.
The report shows
deep misunderstandings about the coupon program, the features and functionality
of converter boxes, and antennas.
Sales associates
are the first line of defense to keep uninformed or misinformed consumers from
making poor decisions about how to prepare for the DTV transition. Since retail
sales associates are part of the ground effort to assist consumers, retailers
need to redouble their efforts to better educate their staffs. The FCC also
needs to facilitate retailers’ efforts to invest more in staff training,
on-floor displays and general DTV education. We need to reach a consensus with
retailers as soon as possible. Time is literally running
out!
We must avoid a
state of mass confusion at all costs. This is why Chairmen Inouye and Chairman
Dingell took the extraordinary step yesterday to write the White House about the
need to make the transition a clear national priority and to create an
interagency DTV Task force.
For over a year
now, I’ve been urging the FCC to create a federal interagency task force with
NTIA and the many other federal agencies involved, such as the Administration on
Aging, Health and Human Services, and the Veterans Administration. It is long
overdue for the federal government to coordinate our efforts. This multi-agency
task force would develop benchmarks and a timeline to achieve nationwide
awareness and give consumers the tools they need to have a smooth transition.
It would be accountable to Congress and the American people.
Not only has
there been an unwillingness to develop an interagency task force, the Commission
actually disbanded its internal DTV task force and has been unwilling to
reconstitute it despite clear indications that the lack of coordination has
cause problems. I was pleased to learn today that Chairman Kevin Martin finally
has agreed to my proposal to restore our internal DTV task force. It’s about
time.
Surveys show that
while Americans are becoming increasingly aware of the DTV transition, many are
confused about what to do about it. It is long overdue for the FCC to present a
comprehensive strategy -- a DTV State of the Union -- about how it plans to
provide better guidance to the American people and to work closer with the
broadcast, cable, satellite and consumer electronic industries to ensure that no
household is left out of the DTV transition.
The DTV chain of communication has many
weak links principally because we never created a coordinating mechanism between
government, industry and the public. Communication is the FCC’s middle name,
but we haven’t lived up to it. As the Government Accountability Office found,
the FCC does not have a plan, and nobody is in charge. And as a result, there
is not coordinated, national effort to educate the American people about the
details and they need to deal with the transition.
Only the
government can play the role of referee to ensure that industry representatives
with sometimes conflicting priorities are coordinated to send a clear message
that serves all consumers and is not skewed by self-interest. The transition is
an enormous opportunity for consumers, but it shouldn’t be turned into an
enormous opportunity to sell them equipment they don’t need.
