DTV Subsidies: Not So Invisible Hands Reach For More

Public comments are back on the NTIA's proposed rules for administering the DTV converter box subsidy.  The small subsidy is supposed to encourage consumers to add another box to their existing set-top collection and to climb up on the roof to re-install the antenna they took down in 1978 when cable came to town.  Congress' motivation is to ensure that their Feb. 2009 date for shutting off analog television doesn't get pushed back yet again because it wants billion$ from the $pectrum auction which will result.  James Gattuso has some comments on the responses NTIA received from the MSTV/CEA/NAB joint comments and from a coalition of retailers including big box electronics stores, Amazon, et al.  He thinks that the latter should be nominated for "some lobbying chutzpah award."  Link: The Technology Liberation Front.  Link to all comments received.  --Dennis