Digital TV transition delayed to June – pretty much
February 4th, 2009, 2:08 pm · 12 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress
The long wait to switch to digital TV broadcasts will now be a bit longer after the U.S. House of Representatives voted today to postpone the switch to June 12, according to an Associated Press report.
The bill, which was approved by the Senate last week, needs only President Barack Obama’s signature to become a law. Obama has said he will sign it.
For the majority of the nation already ready for digital TV broadcasts, the delay still impacts us all. The pending law will tap into government funds to provide more discounts on digital converter boxes for analog TV viewers. Also, this means four more months of commercials, stories and coverage of the digital TV transition.
According to AP, the House voted 264-158 to delay. Last week, the House rejected a similar bill because it failed to get a two-thirds majority as a special fast-track vote. However, today’s action required a simple majority. The Senate approved the delay early last week.
In Orange County and Los Angeles, 9.5 percent of TV-watching households aren’t prepared, according to a December report from The Nielsen Company, the TV research company. Approximately 535,000 households, or 9.5 percent, of folks in the region do not have a digital television, converter box or cable or satellite service.
However, the pending law will allow TV stations that are prepared to switch to make the switch anyway.
At Tustin-based Trinity Broadcast Network, which operates three-dozen TV stations nationwide, the religious TV network will likely switch to digital in phases, said Paul Crouch Jr., TBN’s chief of staff. The cost of maintaining analog broadcasts costs the network $40,000 a month per station in energy bills.
“We’ll probably go market by market and just shut off analog as we see fit,” he said. “In other markets, like Columbus, Ohio, that has 30 percent over-the-air viewership because there are a lot of homes in rural areas.”
TBN will probably keep its analog broadcasts in Ohio and Dallas through June, and continue to broadcast educational information about the switch even though it’s been showing educational spots for two years.
“If you’re not ready on February 18, I’m not sure June 12 is going to make all that much difference,” he said.
The National Association of Broadcasters, the TV industry group that said earlier this month that the nation is ready, now backs the delay. In a statement, it welcomed the new deadline and pledged its support to continue educating consumers who haven’t converted or are confused. It also supports fixing the government-funded coupon program, which ran out of money earlier this month.
“America’s broadcasters, which have spent the past decade preparing for this historic transition, are ready to make a successful switch,” said David Rehr, NAB President and CEO.
NAB, which hosts the DTVAnswers.com web site, is already planning new television spots to promote the June 12 deadline.
From the web:
Nearly a Fifth of Stations Will Make Digital TV Switch Anyway (U.S. News & World Report)
More at The Gadgetress’ “Guide to Digital TV transition.” Recent headlines:
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Idiot Obama wants to give more FREE Vouchers out…..
Un Freakin Believable …
Can we put it off longer please? I won’t get off my lazy backside by then either! I know everyone has been warning of this for months and months already, not to mention making coupons available to me. But, I couldn’t get motivated to even ask for them. Maybe it would be eaasier for us lazy folks if you just brought the convertor to me and installed it. Tack it onto the bailout / stimulus package and I’ll pretend it is not money coming from me in the form of taxes. Thank you Congress, you are special ed.
This is what Obama and those inept idiots in Washington are spending their time on? Anybody that doesn’t have the coupon by now, won’t have one by July. This was no surprise people. Those that dragged their feet, are being “bailed out” by the government. These coupons have been available for 2 years. Let me tell you something, this is just the start. That is the way Dumbacrats work. The constantly come to the aid of people that WON’T help themselves. (I didn’t say can’t). If you don’t want to take responsibility for your self, don’t worry, this government that we now have will swoop in and fix it. That is until we are completely broke. That should be about a week from Tuesday. This is just plain stupid.
We’re in a recession, and we’re going to pay more money so that poor people can watch TV? Come on, TV is not a fundamental right. Spend the millions on healthcare or something that actually helps people.
What a bunch of nimrods up there in DC!!
The households without – too bad. You snooze, you lose. Sorry people but this has been in the works and advertised for some two years and some are not ready?? For the elderly on fixed income, disabled and without family help I sympathize but I bet the most are probably people who need to be out getting some exercise and washing up the filth in their midst instead of watching another white trash episode of Jerry Springer…
Why is it government’s job to pay anything towards people’s TV system? If they can’t afford it, then they shouldn’t be sitting on their a….s at home watching TV! It’s no wonder the U.S. government and the California state government are bankrupt, this liberal mentality that poor people always need government help is sick! They’re poor because they’re lazy and have too many kids! The more handouts you give them, the less they see the need to work! The only handout that will really help them is free condoms and birth control pills.
Who really cares!? I’m too busy working to even watch tv! Nothing but junk on anyways! Cut the movie stars salaries or better yet LAY THEM OFF TOO! It’s all a racket!
It is fair for everyone to have their differing views. Not everyone can afford cable (and not everyone wants cable), and for the people who do not have cable, if they’re suffering as a result of this recession the last thing on their list is buying a dtv cable for 50 dollars. It’s good to know that people are getting more in touch with their priorities. I am support of waiting for the change because of the economy. If the coupons had been available to all who needed them that would have been another story. At any rate, reading this hate I see on here about the people this delay is for needing condoms and needing to be less lazy is racist. It’s ignorant. It’s hurtful. Until you have walked in the shoes of the people you group into this lazy baby popping stereotyped bunch you need to find yourself an education.
I work for an electronics retailer. I can see both sides of this arguement. But the motive for this legislation was to get more people ready, the people that aren’t ready probably won’t get ready until the turn off happens and they HAVE to go out and get a converter box. And for the area of the country I’m in, we’re too far away from the broadcasting sites to really get anything anyway without people spending another 100 dollars on a new antenna and 50 on a booster so that they can get maybe 1 or 2 stations. I think more than the 3% of the country that they say will be affected will be affected. Lot’s of people are just going to be without tv anyway. This delay is silly, if these people want tv, they’ll probably wait til it’s turned off anyway.
This whole thing is getting out of hand and there’s way to much nastyness etc. We should all be grateful that TV is available at all for those interested and in my opionion analog has served the world just fine for years. Digital has been blown out of porporition and BS. The consumers will use anything to encourage controversy/arguments etc for a gain thats not necessary. I miss the old days when the simple way of life was appreciated. Lets all come together and be supportive and stop attacking people for no reason. Watch TV or don’t that’s uip to you but enough is enough.
This is ridiculous. This is the big “change” Obama is planning on doing. C’mon, if they have not been paying attention to the ads flying across their heads for the last two years then this is obviously a waste of time and money. They are giving out coupons so people can consider this idea more affordable, but this is ridiculous. It’s also smart to consider the condition in the economy is in. If a family is starving barely getting by every month, why on earth would they spend $50 dollars for a dtv cable when they have more important things on their list to do like provide for their family and try to put some food on the table. This delay is ridiculous, oh but I know what it did do. It proved that Obama can get things done, but this kind of idea could be created from the mind of his daughters who are probably more intelligent then him. I think this is a ludicrous idea and it’s not going to get people of their backs to do something about it. Instead of trying to aid the poor people that do not want to be aided, they need to devote their time and effort to the plans that got this clown in office; healthcare benefits, taxes, you know things that are going to bring “change” as well as aid millions and millions of people. I hope that the people in Washington start realizing the flaws in their plans or their in for a rude awakening soon.