Hell Freezes Over – DTV Transition Pushed Back?
Washington, D.C. – When Obama speaks… people listen. Well, it seems that politicians listen, at least.
After penning a request to Congress two weeks ago to push back the official transition date to digital television, it seems that both the House and U.S. Senate are prepared to do just that. The below paragraph from Friday’s Washington Post pretty much sums it up:
“Key senators have reached a compromise on a bill that would delay the nation’s switch to all-digital television from next month until June 12. A vote on the legislation is expected early next week.”
As if that weren’t enough, there is also talk that an additional $250 Million may be on its way to help bail out the government’s $40 coupon program, which helps consumers to pay for CECB digital television converter boxes. Assuming that each person gets two $40 coupons, the $250 million might cover the cost of providing DTV converter boxes to the current backlog of coupon requests, which last numbered well over 1 million.
Of course, the companies that manufacture these DTV converter boxes will most likely be caught off-guard by these new developments, and there is just no telling whether or not they will resume production to the level where everyone will be able to find one before June.
So, it seems that next month’s deadline may be more than a bit anticlimactic. Of course, broadcasters still have the right to switch everything over to digital television and eliminate their analog signals at any time. The bill would only push back the date at which switching to DTV would be mandatory for TV stations. I expect that quite a few broadcasters will actually opt to stick with the February deadline, since it has been in the works for so long.
Topics: 2009, analog, box, boxes, broadcast, broadcaster, cecb, Congress, consumer, conversion, convert, converter, converter box, converter boxes, coupon, coupon program, D.C., digital, digital television, DTV, dtv transition, Free, government, hdtv, list, NAL, nation, new, Obama, program, satellite, Senate, signal, station, switch, television, transition, tv, tv converter, tv stations, U.S., U.S. Senate, vote, Washington
