Digital TV is here!

[cycloneye]

The House has defeated a bill to postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months to June 12.

House Republicans succeeded in scuttling a bill to delay the transition, which is scheduled for Feb. 17, less than two days after the Senate unanimously passed the plan.

The defeat is a setback for the Obama administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who fear too many Americans are not ready for the switchover.

The Nielsen Co. estimates 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.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=6747758

[jasons2k]

The U.S. House has defeated an attempt to delay the Feb. 17 transition to digital television signals.

Some sanity in DC is still left in the halls of Congress. Amazing.

It's time to move forward and free-up the bandwidth for other uses.

[Dionne]

As of July '08 the estimated population was 303824640 in the U.S. If 6.5 million people still have the old tv's......that is just over 2%. You cannot kill a plan with this many years in the works for 2% of the population that did not comply. What was the new administration thinking?

[Brent]

House Republicans succeeded in scuttling a bill to delay the transition, which is scheduled for Feb. 17, less than two days after the Senate unanimously passed the plan.

I'm shocked, I thought for sure it'd pass, but definitely happy. It's long past time.

[CajunMama]

The U.S. House has defeated an attempt to delay the Feb. 17 transition to digital television signals.

Good for them! There was absolutely no reason to delay the transition. Like others have said everyone has known for a good while that it was coming.

[cycloneye]

House Republicans succeeded in scuttling a bill to delay the transition, which is scheduled for Feb. 17, less than two days after the Senate unanimously passed the plan.

I'm shocked, I thought for sure it'd pass, but definitely happy. It's long past time.

The bill needed two-thirds majority to approve.

House Republicans managed Wednesday to defeat the so-called "DTV delay" bill—and that means that the planned Feb. 17 date for the digital TV transition is still on, barring any last-minute maneuvering by Democrats and the Obama administration.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller's DTV delay bill—which included a series of compromises to mollify House and Senate Republicans, who've been resisting calls to push back the transition date—was passed by the Senate on Monday, and many observers (myself included) expected smooth sailing in the House.

But while the bill, which would have delayed the DTV transition date to June 12, needed a two-thirds majority to pass, according to the AP—and apparently, it fell short.

So now it's back to the drawing board for Democrats and President Obama, who have argued that too many people still aren't ready for the shutoff of analog TV signals. (The transition only affects those with analog TVs and over-the-air antennas; such viewers would need a $40-$60 DTV converter box to receive digital signals on their old TVs.)

Of course, that's a matter of debate: A recent report from Nielsen revealed that 5.7 percent of U.S. households aren't ready for the DTV transition, but some say that figure is inflated—and after all, it also means that 94.3 percent of the country is ready for digital TV.

Republicans in Congress have further argued that pushing back the DTV transtition date would only add to the confusion (no argument there, given the recent flood of TV spots announcing the Feb. 17 date), and that a delay would put an undue burden on those TV stations that have already started dismantling their analog TV equipment. Rockefeller's compromise bill included a provision allowing TV stations to make the jump to digital prior to the proposed June 12 deadline.

Meanwhile, a government coupon program that allows for two $40 DTV converter box coupons per household is still in disarray. The $1.5-billion program ran out of money earlier this month, although as unused coupons expire (after 90 days), more money flows back into the program. Still, about 2.6 million people are stuck on a waiting list, and while Obama's proposed economic stimulus plan includes $650 million in additional DTV coupon funding, there's no saying when—or if—the stimulus package will pass.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/34955

[southerngale]

The U.S. House has defeated an attempt to delay the Feb. 17 transition to digital television signals.

Good! Delaying it further would have been ridiculous.

[JonathanBelles]

YAY!!! I'm so glad we wont have to wait.

[senorpepr]

While I'm glad the house defeated this bill, there still is a long time between now and February 17th.

(Oh, how I miss the channels back in the states and the opportunities digital tv presented.)

[Derek Ortt]

glad it failed as well

TV is NOT a RIGHT. It is a luxury. If people have not made the switch, TOO BAD!

[Nimbus]

In terms of return for the advertising dollar, low income single mothers with children probably make enough buying decisions to effect policy in some broadcast areas. Within this demographic I'm sure the percentage of families not ready for digital TV is much higher than 5 percent in many areas.

A station choosing an early transition to digital broadcast before their competition might be perceived to be violating some kind of "no child left behind endorsement"....

I'm curious whether the bills original proponents will think it important enough to rework for a re vote.

[lurkey]

My aunt is one of those 2% . . . she asked my mom about it in mid-January.. . I think I told her good luck on getting a coupon. . . . and that instead, she should get a new set (and I have no problem with helping pay for one) . . . btw the TV is not cable-ready. . .don't ask. . she hangs on to things forever until it breaks

[somethingfunny]

When I read "House defeats delay".....well, I had to check the calendar.

The converter boxes are getting hard to find in stores now. But one can be had for $40-$60. I bought the $60 version and I haven't got a clue what makes it better than a $40 model. But it does have a neat feature where you go Menu -> AutoTune -- and it will automatically find every channel that's currently coming through. During the days it finds 6, except when KXII's antenna is (frequently) malfunctioning in which case it finds 3....but some nights it finds upwards of 40. Unfortunately because of the time of night, 35 of them are infomercials. My friend has a 20-foot mast and we've raised stations out of Shreveport, Fort Smith, and Waco on it.

[Nimbus]

btw the TV is not cable-ready.

Lot of TV's out there are not. If she gets desperate the Dollar General store sells a balon that connects at the back of the tv where the bunny ears usually connect. Only costs a buck. You set the converter box to channel 3 or 4 and connect the box out into the balon.

[gtalum]

My aunt is one of those 2% . . . she asked my mom about it in mid-January.. . I think I told her good luck on getting a coupon. . . . and that instead, she should get a new set (and I have no problem with helping pay for one) . . . btw the TV is not cable-ready. . .don't ask. . she hangs on to things forever until it breaks

If she's concerned about cost and doesn't need or want the latest technology, she should check the local thrift stores (Salvation army, Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity) for a very cheap cable-ready tv.

[Category 5]

Thank god. I don't think I could've survived another 5 months of ads for this.

[cycloneye]

We were happy that the House defeated the delay,but guess what,they will go again to the delay thing to June 12:


WASHINGTON - Congress is going to take another crack at delaying the analog TV shutdown by four months.

The House is expected to take a second run next week at a bill that would give consumers more time to prepare for the transition from analog to digital television broadcasts. If it passes, the bill would head to the president.

House Republicans on Wednesday defeated the proposal to delay the analog TV cutoff — currently mandated to be Feb. 17 — to June 12. But that vote happened under a special fast-track procedure that requires two-thirds support to pass.

While Wednesday's 258-168 tally failed to clear that threshold, it showed that House Democrats do have enough votes to pass the measure with a regular floor vote, which requires a simple majority. The bill is expected to go to the House floor during the middle of next week.

The Senate unanimously passed the bill to delay the transition Monday night, and then again Thursday night to incorporate minor changes

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28935913/

[senorpepr]

Exactly what I expected. This bill will pass this go-around.

[CajunMama]

Why even have them vote the first time if they knew they could do this? Sheesh.

[Dionne]

Exactly what I expected. This bill will pass this go-around.

Yepper....the numbers I just ran show an easy win. This some pretty slick political maneuvering happening.