In February, February 17, to be exact, all TV broadcast is suppose to switch to Digital. The reasons behind this move, as far as I can tell are because digital broadcasting takes less bandwidth, freeing up lots and lots of radio frequencies that the government would like to do other things with. Recognizing that this will cause analog TVs to become useless, the US government set up a fund for people to use to buy digital antennae. Each household can qualify for up to two $40 vouchers to buy two digital antennae. (One voucher per antenna.) The government is issuing up to 33.5 million vouchers, for a grand total of $1.34 billion. The majority of these vouchers (22.25 million) can go to households that subscribe to a cable service.
Our lack of cable got me thinking about this, our family's place in the digital conversion, and what we were going to do about it.
Here are some questions I have:
- Do you think TV considered a necessity? Why or why not?
- Is TV a necessity? Why or why not?
- What do you use your TV for, primarily (entertain, inform, babysit, etc.)?
- How much time do you spend "learning" from what you are watching on TV in an average week?
- How much time do you spend being entertained in an average week?
- Should my family use a voucher to get an antenna?
- Should those that subscribe to cable, on even one TV in the home be able to get a voucher?
- Should my family even purchase an antenna? Why or why not?
Thanks.
9 comments:
We do not have cable/satellite. We have digital "rabbit ears" (with an HD TV, so supposedly we don't need a converter box) We watch some night TV (7pm - 10pm) and Saturday morning cartoons. It is very rarely on during the day or before the kiddos are in bed. I'm thinking we (adults) probably watch 10 - 15 hours/week. I'm guessing Thomas watches ~5 hours/week Geesh - that sounds like a lot!!
I like having the TV - and we debate back and forth about getting cable - but mostly for Virgil's sports watching.
I'd recommend getting on the list for a voucher - on NPR I heard that they reached the funding limit and now it is a waiting list until old vouchers expire or aren't used.
I admit to being addicted to Dr Phil and Desperate Housewives. Dr Phil actually gives us great topics to discuss so it's kind of informational. Desperate Housewives is to unwind after my long Sundays at work. I need to tune out for an hour at that point. I would say I watch about 10-15 hours a week as well. Mike is probably a bit more. He watches his shows while I'm at work. Although it isn't a necessity it is nice to have a way to unwind and we try to use it as a starting point for discussions. We could live without it if we had to but currently don't see a need to get rid of it.
Do you guys ever find yourself wishing you had seen something on tv or do you find it on the internet if you need it? If you have no current need for tv I wouldn't bother with the voucher or antennae.
We just stuck our TV out in the garage until Easter, so I guess we are not very good people to ask about TV.
We don't even get any reception in our town unless we have 1) a major antenna on our roof, 2) cable, or 3) dish. As we live in an extremely windy area, we opted not to put a huge antenna on our roof (in fact the sat dish that came with our house blew down in a storm about a year ago). We also decided we'd rather not pay for cable or dish as we would frequent about 5 channels and not watch many programs on any of them. So, basically we don't have TV. It's movies that we own and that's it.
My TV is used for entertainment as I haven't bit the bullet and bought the documentaries I like nor any Bill Nye the Science Guy (he's my hero). Our public library charges to check out videos, educational or entertainment, plus the selection isn't all that great, so we don't bother. We did Netflix for a while and they have great educational stuff but I found myself watching too much just so I could feel I got my money's worth. We canceled it about two years ago and haven't missed it.
I didn't even know about the digital conversion until my mom called asking if we were going to use our converter coupon as hers had expired. I still don't know much about the whole deal and thus don't have much of an opinion. A converter box wouldn't do us any good so we aren't getting one.
The TV has been mostly for my kids lately as I have been involved in other projects and have watched what I want to on the internet (hurray for MONK online) when I want to watch it. My kids got overdosed with our mega amounts of holiday movies (I did sit down and watch those with them) which prompted the TV's semi-annual vacation in the garage. We've been without it for over a week already and don't really miss it. We have a lot of toys that we rotate through and my kids have just played. For us, TV is not a necessity, just a nicety.
My access to YouTube and TeacherTube, on the other hand, is definitely a necessity to me. But that is a different story that should be told another day.
We have a TV that we use for movies mostly. And Nintendo. Can't forget that. We do watch PBS kids during "quiet time" and we love Super Why and Sid the Science Kid. I have actually started using the topics of those shows to be our "lesson" during Mike's school time. It really helps him stay interested and it gives me easy topics that I would never think of.
Our internet is another story. Matt has to have the biggest, best and fastest to SURVIVE. If there was a mandatory converter for that...oh wait...its a modem :p ya we bought that quick. The TV converter we don't plan to because it would be unnecessary. Should the cable company turn our switch off (and I really did tell them!) we would just do something else. We do use Netflix and love it.
Do you use an antenna now? If you don't use it currently, then chances are you'll be just fine without the converter box. I have no idea what the cost is with/without the voucher though. If it ends up being 5-10 bucks I might do it, 50-100, probably not.
we don't have cable. haven't had it for three years. love it. we have a tv, use the DVD player, i watch tv about 25 hrs per year. no joke. (i do find myself lost when people start talking tv shows and what happened, but i'm not uncomfortable with that.)
i unwind with books that people recoil upon viewing (basic economics, pilgrim's progress, thrift, etc.), and feel like i'm not missing anything - except did we forget we are trillions of dollars in debt? why are we paying for people to switch over for their tvs? tv is not a necessity of life. it doesn't fall under food, clothing, shelter, fuel.
i have NOTHING against people who watch tv, i understand the lure and engaging storyline of some shows - truly. and how they help people unwind and keep kids entertained when we need them to be "supervised."
We don't subscribe to any cable or satellite services. We did buy an antenna when we first got married so we could watch conference. Our rule is that it comes out of the closet for conference, and once it's over, it goes back in the closet for another six months. We got a voucher and a converter box so that we can continue to watch conference (unfortunately, we can't pick up a signal down here on the island).
My kids watch a lot of movies and prerecorded videos, especially now that I'm pregnant and supposed to be resting a lot. In fact, this morning after breakfast, Marcus said, "We want to watch a movie now so you can rest." :)
We all probably average at around two hours a day. Most of it is entertainment, but we also watch educational programs like Signing Time and informational shows about airplanes and trains and stuff.
TV is NOT a necessity in any way. We would all be fine without it.
Oops, I didn't know I logged in as PilotAndy. That was me, not him. Oh, and one more thing... we check out a lot of movies from the library (that's where we get all the Signing Time videos). It's free, and you get to keep them for a week! :)
Oh, and I watch a lot less than everyone else. Probably only five hours a week.
I find that I don’t watch that much television only about 6 hours a day, and a couple hours each night. I find that television is only useful in certain circumstances like when I want to unwind, when I want the weather, when I want to watch soap operas, make bread, house relatives, read, use the computer, find out news, sleep, eat, and swim. Other than that we don’t really use the T.V. I do like to watch infomercials, Judge Judy, Geraldo reruns, and VHI specials like I Love the 80’s. I don’t know what the kids are watching, I think Emily likes Myth Busters, Modern Marvels, and Trick My Truck. Eric likes Supernanny, and Home Improvement.
Jill Child McGowan (since two Jills have posted) - sometimes I do, Jamie never does. I don't go looking for stuff on the internet much, although I admit that I have. I do sometimes feel left out of conversations because of my lack of knowledge sometimes it bothers me more than at other times.
Kylene, we don't use an antenna now, but we did before we moved this summer. They were old rabbit ears and were very beaten up, so we threw them out when we moved.
Jill, I don't know, I'm trying to figure out if people do consider tv to be grouped with shelter, food, and fuel. I kinda get the feeling that they do sometimes. Which is one reason why I wrote this post.
Lura, what about the radio or the internet for conference. Or even taking the kids to the stake center? We did that until we got DSL.
Sunnie, I'm curious, how much would you consider to be a lot of television? :) Does Eric get a lot of ideas about how to behave from Supernanny? I really like Supernanny.
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