AS IF the Americans don`t have enough to worry about, they have to start reading up on some serious jargon to get their TVs to work in a few years` time. AS IF the Americans don`t have enough to worry about, they have to start reading up on some serious jargon to get their TVs to work in a few years` time.

The US is reported to have set its analogue television cut-off date for April 2009, right after Super Bowl (which figures, if you want to avert mass action by the millions who are bound to plumb forget). What this means is that some 20 million US TV households, which only receive local free-to-air analogue terrestrial TV signals, will go blank. Those who still rely on the old `bunny ears` receivers will have to purchase Terrestrial Digital Converter Boxes, to receive digital signals on conventional analogue televisions, or buy a new TV with an ATSC 8-VSB receiver built in.

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but doesn`t this seem awfully complicated for the Yanks to grasp, or am I belittling the nation that brought us sugar-flavoured shaving foam in cans? How did we ever live without it?

Still, try to visualise Billy-Bob and Susie-May trying to get their heads around this bit of `techinese`. The one good thing about this is the government subsidy to supply these boxes to low-income families.

There`s just one snag. Illegal immigrants in the US are facing a future with no TV. There`s a conspiracy theory in there somewhere.

One of the conditions of getting the subsidised box is proof that you are a legal citizen of the US, which cuts out a large portion of the lower-income households, thus resulting in less units to subsidise, thus saving the country moneycwait a minute, I think they might be on to something…