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Clark Howard's Tips

March 3, 2008

There's still a lot of mystery surrounding the upcoming February 2009 switch from analog to digital broadcasts in the TV world. Here's the scoop: If you are among the 88% of people who get TV via cable or satellite, it is irrelevant to you that analog TV signals are going away next year. However, if you are one of the 12% who uses rabbit ears, listen up: Your rabbit ears will no longer work as they did come February 2009. You can keep your old TV, but you'll need to get a converter box. The government is offering each American two $40 vouchers to help subsidize the purchase of the boxes. Please note the vouchers are only good for 90 days.

Dish Network, meanwhile, is offering free converter boxes to people who have the vouchers.

PIRG recently sent secret shoppers out to electronics stores in about a dozen states seeking info about the digital TV switch. More than 80% of the time they were given false info by sales associates, who then tried to sell them an expensive multi-function box that would have been useless to them. Almost half of the time they also got wrong info about the time table for the conversion.

Stats from other organizations show that about 4 in 10 Americans haven't heard a word about the coming switch. Clark encourages everyone to help out elderly relatives who may still be getting TV via rabbit ears.

Consumer advice courtesy of