Rabbit ears will soon be clipped

Consumers can get digital converters with help of gift cards

At midnight on Feb. 17, 2009, the rabbit ears and the rooftop antennas that still guide television signals into nearly one of every five U.S. homes will be rendered useless -- unless they are tethered to a new device, including two versions unveiled Wednesday, that the government will spend as much as $80 a household to help families buy.

The V-shaped rabbit ears, which have stood sentry in some living rooms and dens since the early 1950s, risk going the way of the eight-track tape player or Betamax in 20 months. That is when local television stations will cease sending their signals over the analog airwaves, and instead begin transmitting their programming exclusively over the more modern digital spectrum.

The change was set in motion by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission in the mid-1990s. It is being made at least partly to give viewers a better quality picture and to make it easier for stations to broadcast in high definition.

"The moment coming is the end of something that has been around for 60 years -- conventional television -- and it has been a wonderful era," said Richard E. Wiley, a former chairman of the FCC who led a government advisory panel on what was then known as "advanced television" from 1987 to 1995.

"With that ending will come this new digital world, this much greater world," Wiley said, "but many people aren't yet ready or haven't gotten the word."

Those families still using antennas -- nearly 20 million homes, according to government figures -- will eventually be unable to see their favorite programs, at least not without a digital-ready television or a converter that will serve to translate the new signals for old TVs and their antennas. (Those viewers who already get their television from satellite or cable providers are not expected to have much disruption.)

TV vouchers

That is where the government vouchers come in. On Wednesday, the National Association of Broadcasters, the powerful trade lobby representing the nation's television networks and stations, lifted the curtain on two prototypes for those basic, digital converters -- one made by LG, the other by Thomson, which is distributed under the RCA brand -- that will start appearing in electronic and department stores in January, at an expected cost of $50 to $70.

To ensure that viewers' uninterrupted access to free, over-the-air television does not pose a financial hardship, a government agency with a name that sounds like it was borrowed from the old Soviet Union -- the National Telecommunications and Information Administration -- will issue $40 gift cards to consumers who want to buy the converters

Beginning in January, consumers may apply for up to two coupons each, for a total of $80. (More information on the program is available at an FCC Web site, www.dtv.gov, or the broadcasters' site at www.dtvanswers.com.)

All told, the government has set aside $1.5 billion to help viewers pay for the converters. It expects to recoup that cost -- and more -- by later auctioning off the portion of the broadcast spectrum being vacated by the TV stations.

The legislation establishing the $40 coupons was passed by Congress in late 2005, with the support of telecommunications and software companies, at least some of them expected to either manufacture the digital converters or to bid for the older frequencies being returned by the stations.

Consumer groups, however, have expressed concern that some families will have neither the means to buy the converters nor the savvy to successfully obtain the vouchers.