Senate Approves Digital TV Delay till June 12

[Diabolique]

Source: The New York Times


Senate Approves Digital TV Delay

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By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Published: January 26, 2009

The Senate voted on Monday to delay next month’s transition to digital television until June 12 because some viewers would not be ready for the switch.

The voice vote followed a call by President Obama’s administration to postpone the Feb. 17 date for major TV stations to stop sending traditional analog signals. Similar legislation awaits action in the House on Tuesday.

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia who leads the commerce committee, said last week that he had reached agreement with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the top Republican on the panel, on the legislation. Some Republicans had opposed a delay, saying it would cause confusion by changing a long-planned date.

A federal program to subsidize digital equipment that some viewers will need has fallen short of money, and last week the government reported a waiting list of 1.4 million households.

More than 6.5 million homes are not able to receive digital TV programming, the Nielsen Company said last week. The figure is a decrease from last month, when Nielsen said almost 8 million could not receive it.

Think it was a good move?

Are you all ready for the transition?

[Roemello]

Considering so many still aren't prepared, I guess. Then again, with so much forewarning, everyone should be ready by now! I've been set for it for ages.... I don't really watch TV anyway, but I'm still all set for it to happen

[Nakor]

I don't get how so many people are unprepared. It's only been spammed everywhere for the last year. Oh well, doesn't really affect me either way. *shrug*

[NOA Imawario]

I'm still ready regardless, but whatever. If it helps others get ready then fine.

There will still be those who will continue to do nothing and still will be unprepared when June 1 rolls around.

[wavemeister]

We should have moved to the US...here in Germany, we were all on our own when the switch from analogue to digital TV happened, and the DTV receivers were pretty expensive back then (starting at $100). The German government hadn't offered any subsidiaries, only receivers of welfare got some.

[whistledog]

Some US channels I watch still have February 19th as the date of the DTV switchover

In Canada, the DTV switchover takes affect August 2009

[Nakor]

Yeah, I've seen a couple of the "we're switching in Feb anyway" ads.

[TStodden]

As noted in another thread, all the stations except for PBS are sticking to the old switching date... but I'm already prepared since I was one of the first in line for the DTV converter box coupons last year. However, I'll likely have to pick up an outdoor antenna to strengthen the signal strength since reception tends to get erratic in bad weather. Watching the strength indicator momentarily flash "0%" for a split second before returning to normal levels (~50-70% for locals... ~15-50% for alternates) get annoying since is messes up the picture & there's been a cases of A/V asynchronization, which make it's hard to watch.