The Senate is expected to pass a bill delaying the transition to digital television broadcasting to June 12, according to the Associated Press. Broadcasters were originally supposed to switch from analog to digital signals on Feb. 17, but legislators have expressed concern that too many Americans still rely on analog TV sets. More than 6.5 million U.S.households are still not prepared for the digital transition, according to Nielsen, and would be left without TV if the switch happens next month. If the bill pushing the transition to June passes the Senate next week, it would then move onto the House, where a quick vote is expected to meet the looming Feb. 17 deadline.
Jan 23
2009
02:13 PM ET
Senate likely to pass bill delaying digital TV transition
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They want to delay this still? Shouldn’t people just know by now. I mean they have been advertising this stuff for three plus years now. They have offered deep discount coupons and everything. If you have cable you have nothing to worry about anyway. You need to get with the times or your just out of luck. We aren’t still selling VHS because some people didn’t want to make the switch are we? We need to push forward and stop coddling people who are afraid of technology.
This is getting ridiculous. The move to digital has already been delayed by years or something ridiculous like that. There have been commercials on for months now; anyone who watches TV knows this is happening and should be figuring out way to be prepared. Not to mention that there are federal stipends for people who can’t afford the adapter or receiver needed. If it keeps getting postponed people will never be ready for the switch, they’ll just keep on procrastinating like all good Americans.
I can’t help but think this is dumb. How long have people known about the switch? If they still don’t have the converter or a new TV, then that’s their own problem. Not that this really affects me one way or the other, haha, but still.
Oh, please no! I’m so tired of hearing the warnings, the countdowns, the news stories — get it over with already!
There will still be more than 6.5 million U.S. households still not prepared for the digital transition whenever they move back the date to.
Unfortunately, there may be a lot of those people who couldn’t afford the converter boxes at full price and applied for coupons that they, for whatever reason, never received; and other people may not have been able to afford the converters even WITH the coupons.
But even so, if such people couldn’t have set aside a bit of money each week throughout the year to save up for a box as soon as they started hearing about the digital switch, I doubt they would be able to afford the things in just a matter of a few more months. I think maybe the switch should go on as scheduled.
Wow. This is great. Our tax dollars are now being wasted on this kind of unecessary legislation. Our Senators are actually worrying about whether or not people have a television rather than people who don’t have health insurance, a roof over their head or food on the table. This is disgusting.
Everyone has known about this for what, 2 years now? This is dumb. You move out a deadline and people will just wait until a few days before it to scramble. Then complain that they don’t have enough time or money.
why do you all care if the deadline is moved? it won’t affect you either way.
These 6.5 million estimates are from Nielsen, the same company that provides terribly skewed viewing estimates that are criticized by everyone for everything? But we’re gonna believe Nielsen this time?
The switch is a lot more complicated than the tv ads made it seem. For one thing, many antennas are not picking up the digital signals, even with the converter box or new tv. I have a brand-new tv with a digital tuner, but I’m only getting 2 digital channels because the digital signals are fairly weak in my urban area. And the issue is not merely a fear of new technology. Cable is NOT offered every where in this country–and, frankly, why should people have to pay for it if they don’t want it…or in these tough economic times they are not able to afford it? I agree that pushing the deadline will not solve the problem; I think Congress should insist on a longer trial period where both analog & digital are broadcast simultaneously to allow stations to make adjustments so that digital signals CAN be received easily. It’s going to be a big mess…and it probably will affect some of you who are all outraged. I hope someone has more compassion for you than you do for others.
If there are really many people who honestly cannot afford the converter boxes and this delay will help with that,then I’m all for it.When I put myself in anothers shoes who are poor and they invest a lot of money into something they believed would be all they would need to spend on it.Then to find out a few years later that if they did not spend more money on it that it would become useless,I do feel for them and would feel they deserve every chance to be helped.The problem I do have with it is,what is this going to do to help? This entire thing is starting to feel fishy.The bottom line is always money.We give it,they take it and want more.This is another flag showing there’s something wrong here.Why would something like this ever get delayed? If the powers that be want to make a change so they can sell more expensive HD and blu ray equipment and make more money,then give the rest of the people free converters and get on with it already and move on with something really important-tom
To any senators who might be reading this (fat chance, I know): Vote no! Do the sensible thing and pass an emergency funding bill to fund the convertor box program properly. We’ve known about the DTV transition for several years, and it’s ridiculous to try to delay this any longer. My family has had our convertor boxes for months now. I know there are plenty of people who probably cannot afford the box (coupon or not), but that’s something that should have been considered from the beginning. They should have just given each American a convertor box after filing their taxes or something. It would have been a lot easier for everyone involved, and we wouldn’t have had to suffer through the endless DTV transition commercials.