US digital switch over gulps N298bn

United States (US) government has said it spent over $2 billion (about N298 billion) on the recent switch over from analogue to digital broadcasting.

ITRealms Online recalls that US television viewers were bombarded with a series of adverts warning them that the analogue signal would be switched off penultimate Friday.

The government also issued coupons worth $40 each, to cover most of the mailing cost of 60 million coupons to households.

The Commerce Department said it received 319,990 requests for the coupons, nearly four times the daily average for the past month, a day preceding the deadline.

About one million households in the United States were faced with blank television
screens after stations switched off their analogue signal on Friday, June 12, 2009, which saw a last-minute rush to buy converter boxes and digital television sets.

Although some TV stations chose exactly when to cut their analogue signals, with many waiting until late at night.

Television stations, electronics stores and the government said most of the calls they received on Friday were from people who needed help setting up their converter boxes, Associated Press reported.

Some had thought digital broadcasting began last week and had not realised they could have been using the boxes to receive digital stations for years.

Unlike the United Kingdom, where the analogue signal is being switched off region by region, the United States decided to pull the plug in one go, across the nation.

This has led to accusations that some groups, especially the elderly and the low income households, have been left behind in the digital rush.

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