I do not think it is as big of a deal as others, obviously. It's not like February 17th just "snuck up"...they've been advertising this for a LONG TIME. We have Dish, so weren't affected, but my bf's mom just uses an antenna, and she has 4 TVs, so she had us order 2 coupons for her. She's had them up and running for months now, not even a slight bit of hassle....
It could have been worse, the gov't could have said no one is getting coupons and you get to buy the $40 boxes yourself...so I really don't see what the issue is. JMO