Just turned on the television, and it looks as though Armageddon has been avoided. My tv still works.
The Digital TV switchover has been sitting out there for years now. A year ago, television stations went frantic in trying to convince millions of Americans to race out for special receivers and converter boxes to avoid a blank television on February 17. A few weeks ago, Congress and the President even changed the law to delay the mandated shut-off date for broadcasting on analog. The stations in my market went ahead with the switchover today anyways. I doubt many noticed.
More than half of Americans have cable and aren’t affected. And even more have bought a television recently enough to catch the digital signals without a special piece of equipment. How many Americans might be affected? 14 percent. If they all have really old TVs. Leave No Television View Behind. (They might start reading.)
Lots of fear, because without urgency I might miss my third-rate newscast. DTV-2K. Hype overblown.
We missed a great chance to stimulate the economy today because of months and months (and months) of breathless DTV hype. We should have had broadcasting television stations make the change without any announcements. Then we might have had hundreds of thousands of Americans scrambling for new televisions today and placing calls to repairmen. The result would have been a huge spending spree and millions of dollars of retail purchases. Could have started an economic turnaround if somebody would have thought it out. Instead, those millions of purchases were spread out over 12 months – diluting their impact and leaving us to wait for small tax refunds, rebates, and reductions.
As I write this, we’re just a few hours away from something truly remarkable. I really just wanted to make a quick note about it.
On Inauguration Day, 2001, an analyst chimed in for a minute that what he (or she) was seeing was truly remarkable. It was monumental. For all of the angry feelings and political fights that followed the 2000 presidential election, the U.S. had a peaceful transfer of power.
The same thing will happen again in a few hours.
This doesn’t have anything to do with a party or a political belief. It’s just the realization that throughout this country’s history, it’s remained stable by transferring the reigns of executive leadership to a new person – sometimes from a different party. This happens without riots and revolutions without demonstrations and disobedience. The system proscribed more than 200 years ago is carried out in a regular fashion.
Simple. But really something remarkable when you think about the past 200 years’ worth of world history.
The big news from the past two days (since the attacks in Mumbai) is the declaration that the United States is in a recession. The stock market had bad news the day of the announcement, and a bump up the day after.
But I’m not really sure what to make of the “news.” It was pretty clear that the economy was having a tough time before the official pronouncement.
I’m not an economist, and I haven’t conducted detailed studies on herd mentality and crowd reactions. But it strikes me that one of the positive things today is that we’re saying the word now. It puts a name to the thing haunting us and keeping us awake at night. No more of this he-who-shall-have-no-name crap. The reason I don’t want to overspend on Christmas presents isn’t the slowdown or bad times or the economy. It’s the recession.
It’s a serious word, and it makes everyone stop and think. Do I need the extra coffee? Should I buy the extra gift? Can we eat in tonight? It works in business as well. Can I justify this expense? Are we throwing good money after bad? Are we really fixing the problem? Is this the most efficient and cost-effective way to do this?
That’s good practice – for individuals and businesses – in good times and in bad. It might be the brightest spot for a bit.
Happy Thanksgiving. Turkey Day kicks off the winter holiday season. Shopping sales begin on Black Friday. People go from winterizing to decorating homes. Snow is no fun – but more sufferable for the next 30 days.
Some folks are already writing and addressing holiday cards. Overachievers.
Of course, some people have paid staff to put together cards for the season. I’ve sat in on discussions (and wrestled privately) with whether it’s better to say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to avoid mixing holidays for different religions and cultures.
Here’s an idea around that problem: Segmenting the audience. It’s paid staff. They should be correct, right? Doh!
