Senate Approves Digital TV Postponement; House Vote Next

In a step toward relieving the federal government of a major IT headache, the Senate yesterday voted to postpone the widely anticipated switch from analog to digital TV broadcasting by four months.

 

According to Joelle Tessler of the Associated Press, the House of Representatives today could pass a proposal to put the transition off until June 12.

 

“Monday’s Senate vote is a big victory for the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress, who have been pushing for a delay amid growing concerns that too many Americans won’t be ready for the currently scheduled Feb. 17 changeover,” Tessler reports. “The Nielsen Co. estimates that more than 6.5 million U.S. households that rely on analog television sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals could see their TV sets go dark next month if the transition is not postponed.”

 

As TMCnet reported, the conversion is expected to affect affect about 20 million consumers who don’t already use the technology.

 

Yet it’s hard to say just how the digital TV mess will shake out, and what Genachowski will have on his plate once he assumes control of the federal agency that oversees communications in the United States.

 

As Reuters (News - Alert) reporter Kim Dixon writes, Obama himself had asked legislators to extend the original deadline – a proposal that Republicans were expected to fight.

 

In order to replace their TVs with digital units, owners of older sets that receive over-the-air signals must buy a converter box, replace their TV with a digital TV, or subscribe to satellite or digital cable service.

 

It’s a lot to ask, especially considering that many of those with older sets aren’t tech-savvy or even interested in technology, and – sure enough – the government ran out of funding for coupons to subsidize converter boxes last week. Officials estimate that 1.8 million people remain on a waiting list.

 

While some companies that have invested millions in the conversion say any delay would decrease confidence in the auction model for spectrum allocation, others say they don’t want to anger customers by effectively leaving them without a TV signal for some time.

 

IT insiders such as TMC President Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) rate digital TV at the top of a short list of FCC priorities facing the agency’s new chairman, Julius Genachowski, along with net neutrality – an issue that current FCC (News - Alert) Chairman Kevin Martin has largely side-stepped – and free wireless broadband access.

 

“Ideally, I would like to see the new FCC help foster more communications and broadband competition and have more of a focus on watching out for consumers – we the people who pay their salaries,” Tehrani said. “Most importantly, I would like to see an FCC which advocates consistency so investors and our industry can invest properly.”

 

According to Tessler, the digital TV issue now goes to the House, where Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, has promised to work with House leaders to bring a floor vote today on the deadline-delaying bill from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat.