Commentary

Low-Quality, Trashy TV Sets Meet Low-Quality, Trash Programming

Trash TV makes money. And, now your old TV sets, turned into trash, can turn into cash.  

Millions of analog TV sets might be added to the trash pile -- especially now as the industry moves to an all-digital TV system in February 2009.  About 28 million TVs are estimated to enter the "solid waste stream" because of the FCC-mandated switch from analog to digital.

That number of outdated TVs will be somewhat higher than in recent years, but it doesn't need to be.  TVs -- even old ones -- can get signals through satellite and cable. Still, many customers will erroneously believe their TVs will be no good in the digital age -- just as there are misinformed consumers who believe all they need in order to get high-def TV  is to buy a HD TV set.

So TV junk piles will get bigger, warn solid waste executives.  Even though manufacturers such as Sony have a system of 80 drop-off sites for old TV tubes -- with plans to go to 150 sites soon -- it's not enough.

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The problem is, even 100 sites work out to two per state -- which doesn't make it convenient enough for customers to use them. Some legislators want to see drop-off sites no more than 20 miles from every consumer home.

Public and private solid waste collectors are nervous, and see a big problem coming. And in that regard, one prominent executive wants the FCC to contribute financially (since that federal agency started this digital conversion business in the first place).

One executive's plan would pay out $4 to $5 to waste providers for each TV set -- for the sorting out from other garbage, and proper disposal. That works out to about $130 million in total.

Many consumers should hold off moving out the old tubes, at least in the near term. They should get more educated -- not about their TVs, but about the TV business. With network programmers offering more low-quality, perhaps low-rated, reality shows for the next several months (due to the writers' strike) consumers won't need higher-quality, bigger TV screens.

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